Decorating Your Cake With Fruit or Other Healthy Toppings

Everyone loves cake on their lips...but not on their hips. Candies and chocolate and icings are full of sugar and fat. Not everyone in attendance at your party will want to indulge on such a treat. You could be stuck with miles of cake or cupcakes that might go to waste because your guests are watching their waist. There are ways to have your cake and actually eat it too when you decorate your cake with fruit or other healthy toppings.

Fruit

Fruit is not only a healthier option than candy cake toppings, it's also colorful and provides various shapes and textures to your cake. Depending on the theme of your party and the colors that are dominant in your decorations, you can dress up any cake with fresh or dried fruit. Slice strawberries long ways, use wedges of star fruit, sprinkle blueberries or raspberries, or section oranges or mandarins for bright, vivid additions. If you decide to use fruits in a decorative manner on your cake, be aware that fresh fruit will moisten the cake and help it spoil quicker. You'll also want to make sure that the fruit flavors don't clash with each other, the cake itself, or any icing you choose to put on it. Stay away from fruits that oxidize too quickly (apples, pears, bananas) as no one wants to eat a cake with wilting brown fruit on top.

Fruit Jams

Have you ever wondered how your bakery gets those fruit-covered tarts to look so shiny and wet with flavor? The secret is...fruit jam. It's nature's paint. If you take apricot or raspberry jams, or any other flavors, and heat them in the microwave for a minute or so, it will form this vibrant and delicious glaze that you can dabble over fresh fruit or over a bare cake itself. Get a new paint brush ad become the DiVinci of your kitchen as you slather the sweetness over a pound or angel food cake. Try sugar-free jams to reduce calories even more.

Whipped Toppings

Instead of plopping gobs of fat-laden, sugary-sweet icing on top of a cake, you can use a simple ingredient fresh from your grocer's freezer: whipped topping. Cool Whip or generic store brands provide a sweety, yet less fattening icing to cupcakes, cookies, and cakes. Replace the heavier frostings with a layer of fat-free or reduced calorie whipped topping. You'll have to serve the dessert immediately after "icing" to ensure freshness. You won't miss out on any taste, even though you may save your waist.

Nuts

Nuts provide extra protein for us, so why not toss a handful of chopped favorites onto your next cake. German chocolate cakes slather on walnuts to the icing, but you can do it without the chocolate. Add coconut slivers, almonds, ground peanuts, roasted macadamia, or chopped pecans with your other decorations. Be careful, though, to inform your guests of the nut toppings as some people are allergic to tree nuts and ground nuts. Put a sign out next to your cake as an FYI.

No matter what kind of party you're hosting, you can find healthy alternatives to top your cake instead of the lardy icing.