Reinvent and make over leftover sweet treats
Christmas is a time of indulgence, so it’s almost a given that you’ll end up with more dessert than you know what to do with.
Make the most of your sweet leftovers with these handy tips and recipes.
01
Leftover cake & cookies
If your leftover cake doesn’t have quite the same sparkle after a day or two, turn it into a trifle! Made one too many Christmas cookies? They work equally as well. The different layers of a trifle, made up of cream, custard and fruit, will moisten the cake or cookies and giving them a second life as another delicious dessert.
Try our black forest trifle recipe for leftover chocolate cake, or mini affogato trifles using gingerbread cookies. Leftover Christmas cake? Use it in this mixed berry martini trifle cups. You can even use profiteroles or leftover panettone!
02
Do-over doughnuts
Perhaps you served up some doughnuts as part of your festive feast, but have one too many left over. They can be easily jazzed up with a little of your favourite ice-cream. Try these blueberry swirl ice-cream doughnut sandwiches or swap cookies for doughnuts in any of the ice-cream sandwich recipe. Browse more ideas for extra doughnuts below.
03
Leftover pastries
Use leftover croissants and pastries in place of bread to make bread and butter pudding, like this sourdough croissant French toast pudding. Any pastries will work brilliantly. You can even try for something savoury like this mushroom and kale croissant pudding. See more ideas where you can swap bread for pastries below.
04
Leftover candy canes
Minty, sweet and crunchy candy canes are the perfect hard candy to crush up to use as a sweet topping for cake, ice-cream and other desserts. Use leftover candy canes to make candy cane bark or peppermint chocolate truffles. Watch our video to find more ideas for extra candy canes, and see our recipes below.
05
Leftover egg whites & yolks
Use up unused egg whites or yolks in another mouth-watering dessert. Try making Portuguese custard tarts, salted caramel vanilla slice or creme brulee using leftover egg yolks. Or whip up magnificent meringues or an easy pavlova using leftover egg whites. Find more ways to use up egg yolks and egg whites below.
06
Extra jam
Did you receive a jar of homemade jam for Christmas? Use it to make crepes with strawberry jam for breakfast, or scones with jam and cream for afternoon tea. Hint: you can use almost any sweet jam for these recipes.
