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Top 10 Summer Dessert trends

Need a dessert to take to a summer gathering? Then you’ll need to be up on the dessert trends. Pinterest Predicts released its dessert trends forecast for 2023 and bubble cakes are out, and ‘wildflours’ are in, but what else is fashionable in fondants and other fancies?

To find the cakes and treats taking the baking world by storm, Pinterest analysed its own pins alongside global search data to see which trends were on the up, and these were the cakes and bakes proving popular:

  • Daisy cupcakes +85%
  • Wildflower cupcakes +110%
  • Herbal apothecary aesthetic +1025%
  • Purple floral cake +85%
  • Sage green cupcakes +210%

But beyond the baking, there’s a renaissance for nostalgic puddings, like the Baked Alaska and boozy trifles. Good Homes takes a look at what’s hot in puddings and pastries…

1. Daisy Cupcakes

When it comes to dessert trends in 2023, particularly cakes, there’s one thing to bear in mind. Fondant icing is out and buttercream is in.

Challenge yourself to unleash your inner Bake Off contestant and create showstopper cakes like these daisy cupcakes with a range of different sized piping bags and nozzles.

If you have a less than steady hand, try Lakeland’s floral icing cutter set for sugar paste flowers.


Watch this video by Eat Cake Be Merry to discover how to make buttercream daisy cupcakes with bees…


2. Newstalgia

Newstalgia is the buzz word for 2023, for both interiors and, as it turns out, dessert trends. So, what exactly is Newstalgia? Basically it’s merging the new and old. Think your childhood favourites with a twist, cornflake cakes, using sumptuous dark chocolate.

Jam tarts topped with rich whipped cream, homemade iced buns, apple turnovers filled with blackberry and thyme, fairy cakes, with a two-tone swirl or a banoffee pie baked Alaska. This is a trend we’re here for.

3. Comic cakes

Mirroring the trend for dopamine decor, it seems our dessert trends in 2023, are joy-filled. Case in point, with comic cakes. Try an angled palette knife to get your icing as flat as possible, and make your shapes exaggerated.

For a realistic looking cartoon pipe black icing around all the cake’s edges, to create pen drawn lines for the perfect 2D effect.


Loving the comic cakes trend? Watch this step-by-step guide to creating your own comic cakes by British Girl Bakes


4. Sage green cupcakes

It’s not just the type of cake that’s trending, it’s the colour too, and when it comes to cake colours in 2023, sage green is the one.

Whether you want to make your confectionery look like a box of succulents (like pictured) or just want to tap into the green and gold trend. If you’re looking for the hottest colour of 2023, this is it.

5. Cakescapes

There seems to be a ‘scape’ for everything right now. Tablescape, doorscape, mantlescape and now the trend has infiltrated into our desserts, with cakescapes, and we’ve got to admit, they’re pretty impressive. Not one for the novice bakers out there, this is one to hand to the professionals.

Surrey and London-based Anges de Sucre for whom cakescapes are a signature decorating style, says it’s ‘a style which incorporates multiple layer cakes, but instead of being stacked to create one tall tiered cake, it is decorated individually on a large cake board, with the increased surface area for decoration.’

6. Fake Bakes

From cakescapes, to the opposite end of the scale fake bakes. Fake Bakes, where you buy a shop bought cake and transform it yourself, are on the up for 2023. With energy bills sky rocketing, turning on the oven to bake a cake can seem like a luxury, so many people are opting to buy a cake and then get creative with the decorating.

Anges de Sucre has a whole page dedicated to Fake Bake recipes, where you’ll learn how to create a showstopper dessert for just £10.

7. Checkered desserts

Think Battenberg, marble cake and other classic favourites. A trend that transcends across fashion, interiors, beauty and even desserts, checkers was big business in 2022 and shows no signs of abating in 2023. So polish off a Mr Kipling favourite for your afternoon tea party, and get practising your marble technique.

8. Boozy baking

With dry January out the way, now we can get on with the 2023 trend of boozy baking… The winner of the Platinum Pudding competition for the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II was the impressive lemon swiss roll and amaretti trifle, and taking a riff on that for 2023 is the gin and tonic trifle.

This fab recipe uses lemon curd, sliced lemons and a healthy dose of G&T. Cheers to that.

9. Spicy sweet stuff

Innovation always means testing the boundaries, and this trend promises an extra kick from desserts. Intensify the sensorial experience with bold and spicy flavours fused into your favourite sweet treats.

Flavour considerations for these include cayenne, chipotle anise, rosemary, black pepper and smoky. This really will crank up the desserts to the next level.

 

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A post shared by Sophie Hewson (@soupykitchen_)

10. Alfresco high tea

Last year we had the Platinum Jubilee and this year we’ve got the King’s Coronation, so we’re likely going to see more than a few tea parties popping up.

With Nanna normcore and newstalgia trending we’re also going to be dusting off our vintage tea sets, mixing them with the trend for biophilia and taking them out for high tea in the great outdoors.

Continuing the theme Pinterest Predicts has seen that searches for ‘wildflower cupcakes’ are up 110%, ‘purple floral cake’ is up 85% and ‘herbal apothecary aesthetic’ is up 1025%, so we know what our tablescapes are going to look like…

Wildflower cupcakes are a hot dessert trend for 2023

Photo: Talking Tables


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