🍓 Fresh Strawberry Topping for Cheesecake & More

Bold claim time: you can improve almost any dessert with three ingredients and 20 minutes. For instance:

• Ice cream? Check.
• Cheesecake? Got ya covered.
• Tarts? You better believe it.

All of these things can be improved at least 37.45%* by adding an easy homemade strawberry sauce on top.

*Figures have not and will not be scientifically checked

Ingredients

Any recipe that just has three ingredients is a recipe I can get on board with! Here’s what you’ll need for this homemade Strawberry Sauce. Check the recipe card for full ingredient amouts.

• Strawberries: You’ll need one pound of strawberries to make 2 cups chopped berries. The recipe makes 1 1/2 cups of sauce, but if you need more sauce than that, you can easily double or even triple this recipe in a larger pot. The flavor is better when using fresh berries, but you can also use frozen berries–check the FAQ section below for information on how to use frozen berries in this recipe!
• Sugar: The recipe calls for 1/3 cup granulated sugar, but you can add more or less depending on how sweet your berries are, and your personal preference.
• Lemon Juice:Just a little lemon juice brightens the sauce and deepens the sweet berry flavor. Use freshly squeezed lemon juice if you have it, but bottled juice will work as well.

Equipment

All you need are a few basic kitchen tools to make this sauce!

• Saucepan: I use a 4-quart saucepan which is the perfect size for this amount of sauce. If you’re doubling or tripling the recipe, I recommend using a larger size.
• Juicer: You can squeeze the lemon juice by hand, but I recommend using a juicer. This makes it easier to get more juice out of the lemon!
• Spatula: You’ll want to use a spatula to regularly stir the strawberry sauce as it cooks so it doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pan.
• Jars: You can store any leftover sauce in mason jars in the fridge.

📸 Photo Tutorial: How to Make Strawberry Sauce

This homemade Strawberry Sauce comes together in less than 30 minutes! Here’s a quick overview of how to make it, and for full printable instructions, visit the recipe card above.

💭 Variations

This Strawberry Sauce is very customizable and forgiving. Here are a couple of things you can do to switch things up!

• Make another berry sauce. This recipe can be easily adapted to accommodate different berries. Try it with raspberries, blueberries, or blackberries. You can also use cherries, pitted and halved, to make a homemade cherry sauce!
• Adjust the sugar. You can adjust the amount of sugar you use depending on the ripeness of the berries. Very ripe berries will need less sugar. Under-ripe berries will need more.
• Add another flavor. Some of my favorite additions are 1 tsp vanilla extract, a shake of ground cinnamon, or adding lemon zest in addition to the lemon juice. Almond extract is another fun flavor you can try if you think it will work with the other components of your dessert.

Ingredients

Here are a few ingredient tips to help you get started making these cute cookies. Full ingredient amounts can be found in the recipe card below. (Links are affiliate links and I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.)

FOR THE SUGAR COOKIES

• Flour: To prevent dry, dense cookies, make sure to measure your flour correctly. Use a food scale if you have one, or use the spoon and level method.
• Baking powder
• Granulated Sugar
• Unsalted butter and salt: I like to use unsalted butter and control the amount of added salt. If you only have salted butter, feel free to use it, and leave out the additional salt. Using room temperature butter will help it blend with the other ingredients better and prevent lumps.
• Eggs: Make sure to use large, room temperature eggs (not medium or extra large).
• Vanilla extract: Vanilla is the classic sugar cookie flavor, and Nielsen-Massey Bourbon vanilla extract is my favorite. However, feel free to use whatever vanilla extract you have on hand at home. You can also experiment and add other extracts in addition to or instead of vanilla. Try lemon or almond!
• Sour cream: Adding sour cream to the cookies makes them extra-soft and tender, and I love the very subtle tang it gives to them. Make sure your sour cream is at room temperature so everything blends together nicely.

FOR THE ROYAL ICING

• Meringue powder: This meringue powder by Wilton is great for making royal icing. It stays fresh for a long time, so it’s good to keep as a pantry staple. 
• Water
• Powdered sugar: If your powdered sugar has hard lumps, be sure you sift it before using it in the icing.
• Light corn syrup: Just a touch of light corn syrup helps with the texture and glossiness of the royal icing. You can omit it if desired.
• Flavoring: The recipe calls for almond extract to flavor the icing, but you can substitute other flavors like lemon or clear vanilla extract according to preference.
• Gel food coloring: Depending on how you plan to decorate your cookies, you’ll need an assortment of gel food coloring. I use Americolor brand.

TO MAKE THE SUGAR COOKIES

1. Combine dry ingredients: In a bowl, whisk together the 19 oz (4 1/4 cups) flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp baking powder, and set aside for now.
2. Cream the butter and sugar: In the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine 8 oz (1 cup) softened butter and 12.25 oz (1 3/4 cups) sugar, and mix everything together on medium speed until fluffy and well-mixed, about 1-2 minutes.

3. Add eggs one at a time: Add 2 large eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
4. Add vanilla and sour cream: Then add 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1oz (2 TBSP) sour cream.

5. Mix in dry ingredients: With the mixer running on low, add the dry ingredients gradually, and mix until they’re just about incorporated. Stop the mixer when only a few streaks of flour remain. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula, and finish mixing all the dough by hand.
6. Divide dough and refrigerate: Divide the dough in half and press each into a thin disc, wrapping well with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firmer but not hard, about 30 minutes.

7. Prepare to bake: When you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350°F.
8. Roll out dough: Place a disc of dough between two sheets of parchment or waxed paper, and roll out until it is 1/4-inch thick.
9. Cut dough: Use a 4-inch heart cookie cutter to cut out your cookies and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Combine the scraps and re-roll the dough to cut more cookies. You should get about 14 extra large heart cookies.
10. Freeze for 10 minutes: Put the sheet in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking to help the cookies hold their shape.

11. Bake: Bake the trays of cookies for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are just starting to take on color and they have lost the raw shine in the middle.
12. Cool: Let them cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then remove them to wire racks to cool completely before decorating them.

TO MAKE THE ROYAL ICING

1. Mix meringue powder and water: Combine 1.8 oz (6 TBSP) meringue powder and 6 floz (3/4 cup) water in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix them together on medium speed until foamy.
2. Sift in powdered sugar, then add corn syrup and flavoring: Stop the mixer and sift 24 oz (6 cups) powdered sugar over the bowl. Beat on low speed until the sugar is incorporated. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl, then add 2 tsp corn syrup and 1/2 tsp flavoring.

3. Mix until stiff: Turn the mixer speed back to medium-high and mix for 5 minutes, until the royal icing is shiny, stiff, bright white, and voluminous. Do not mix on the highest speed, and do not mix for more than 5 minutes.
4. Thin the icing: Right out of the mixer, this icing is too thick for smooth flooding, so you’ll want to thin it a bit. Start by adding a tablespoon of water to the mixing bowl, and stir until it’s incorporated. Continue to add water a bit at a time, testing regularly, until you achieve the right consistency. You’ll know you have it when you drizzle a spoonful of icing over the bowl and it takes about 15 seconds for the trail of icing to fully disappear.

5. Divide and color the icing: Decide how many icing colors you want, and divide the icing into that many bowls. Add a few drops of gel food coloring to each bowl of icing and stir by hand until the color is evenly distributed.
6. Fit and fill piping bags: Place each color in a piping bag fitted with a small round tip (I recommend a #2 tip).

TO DECORATE THE COOKIES

1. Outline the cookies: Draw a thin outline of royal icing around the outside of the cookies.
2. Flood cookie centers: Next, fill (aka “flood”) the center of the outlined cookies with royal icing. If you miss any spots, use the tip of the piping bag to nudge the icing into place, or use a scriber tool/toothpick to smooth out any rough lines.

3. Dry and decorate: Allow the cookies to dry at room temperature for at least 2 hours to set the icing. Once set, use a red edible marker to write cute sayings on them, just like real conversation hearts! (Alternately, you could use red royal icing in a piping bag with a #1 tip instead.)
4. Set completely: Decorated cookies can be enjoyed as soon as they are finished. However, if you plan to package or stack the cookies one on top of another, you will need to let the cookies sit in a single layer for at least 12 hours at room temperature to be sure the royal icing is completely hard and dry.

🍪 Storing Royal Icing Sugar Cookies

You can enjoy the cookies the same day they’re made as long as the royal icing set for at least 2 hours before topping them with a clever saying.

How long does royal icing take to harden?

It takes a minimum of 12 hours for royal icing to fully harden. So, if you plan to stack or package your cookies, you’ll need to let them dry completely, to prevent damaging or smearing the icing.

Let the cookies sit in a single layer, at room temperature, for at least 12 hours to be sure the royal icing is fully dry. If you are in a humid climate, you may need to give them up to 24 hours to fully harden. I find having an oscillating fan pointing at the cookies can speed up the drying process and help them dry more evenly.  

Storing Sugar Cookies at Room Temperature

Once set, the cookies can be stacked and stored in an airtight container between sheets of waxed paper or parchment. Store the cookies at room temperature for up to two weeks – do not refrigerate them, as the humidity can cause the icing to soften and dissolve. 

Freezing Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

Decorated and fully set cookies can also be frozen for up to 6 months. The defrosting process can make the icing bleed or become sticky, so for the best results, I recommend packaging the cookies individually (for instance, in sealed plastic bags) and then placing them in a plastic container in the freezer.

Let them defrost at room temperature while still in the plastic container – this can help cut down on colors bleeding or other moisture issues. You may still see some changes in the icing, so if you are planning on freezing cookies for an important event, do a test run first to see how they hold up for you. 

💗 Royal Icing Valentine’s Day Cookies

Spread some love by baking these cute heart-shaped sugar cookies, perfect for Valentine’s Day celebrations or any special occasion!

These Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies start with a classic roll-out sugar cookie, lightly flavored with vanilla (or almond, or lemon…baker’s choice!) and baked until golden around the edges but still soft in the middle.

They’re tasty on their own, but since they are so simple, they’re the perfect blank slate for playing around and experimenting with different royal icing decorating techniques.

If you’re a royal icing newbie, never fear! Making and using royal icing is REALLY not as scary as it might seem, and I have a ton of step-by-step photos and tips to take you through it. I’m sharing four different decorating styles, ranging from super simple to moderately skilled, so you can pick and choose your favorites to recreate.

And if you’re looking for a royal icing alternative, you can try topping them with fondant like in my Watercolor Rose Sugar Cookie recipe.

🧾 What You’ll Need

Ingredients

Great cookies start with great ingredients. Here are my top ingredient tips to help you get started. You can find full ingredient amounts in the recipe card below. (Links are affiliate links and I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.)

For the Sugar Cookies

• Flour: “Regular” flour, aka all-purpose flour, is what we’re using to give these cookies their structure. I highly recommend weighing the flour (and all of your ingredients!) for a more accurate result, but you can also spoon it into the measuring cup and gently level it off.
• Baking powder: Just a little to help the cookies rise ever so slightly.
• Sugar: Use granulated sugar to give the cookies a touch of sweetness.
• Unsalted butter and salt: I like to use unsalted butter and control the amount of added salt precisely. However, if you only have salted butter, feel free to use it and omit the additional salt. The butter will blend into the cookie dough better (preventing lumps) if you bring it to room temperature first.
• Eggs: Make sure to use large, room temperature eggs (not medium or extra large).
• Vanilla extract: Vanilla is the classic sugar cookie flavor and Nielsen-Massey Bourbon vanilla extract is my favorite. However, feel free to use whatever vanilla extract you have on hand at home. You can also experiment and add other extracts in addition to or instead of vanilla. Try lemon or almond!
• Sour cream: Adding full-fat sour cream to the cookies makes them extra-soft and tender, and I love the very subtle tang it gives to them. Make sure your sour cream is at room temperature so everything blends together nicely.

For the Royal Icing

• Meringue powder: This meringue powder by Wilton is great for making royal icing. It stays fresh for a long time, so it’s good to keep as a pantry staple.
• Water: To help get the right consistency for the icing.
• Powdered sugar: For sweetness and thickening.
• Light corn syrup: Just a touch of light corn syrup helps with the texture and glossiness of the royal icing. You can omit it if desired.
• Flavoring: The recipe calls for almond extract to flavor the icing, but you can substitute other flavors like lemon or clear vanilla extract according to preference.
• Gel food coloring: Depending on how you plan to decorate your cookies, you’ll need an assortment of gel food coloring, like green, red, and pink, or whatever other colors you’d like. I use Americolor brand.

📸 Step-by-Step Tutorial: How to Make Valentine’s Day Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

Here’s a photo tutorial showing how to make these cookies, from dough to decoration. You can easily print these instructions by going to the recipe card above.

To Make the Sugar Cookies

• Combine dry ingredients: In a bowl, whisk together the 19 oz (4 1/4 cups) flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp baking powder, and set aside for now.
• Cream the butter and sugar: In the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, combine 8 oz (1 cup) softened butter and 12.25 oz (1 3/4 cups) sugar, and mix everything together on medium speed until fluffy and well-mixed, about 1-2 minutes.

• Add eggs one at a time: Add 2 large eggs (one at a time), beating well after each addition.
• Add vanilla and sour cream: Then add 1 tsp vanilla extract and 1oz (2 TBSP) sour cream.

• Mix in dry ingredients: With the mixer running on low, add the dry ingredients gradually, and mix until they’re just about incorporated. Stop the mixer when only a few streaks of flour remain. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl with a spatula, and finish mixing all the dough by hand.
• Divide dough and refrigerate: Divide the dough in half and press each into a thin disc, wrapping well with plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firmer but not hard, about 30 minutes.

• Prepare to bake: When you’re ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Roll out dough: Place a disc of dough between two sheets of parchment or waxed paper, and roll out until it is 1/4-inch thick.
• Cut dough: Use a 3-inch heart cookie cutter to cut out your cookies and place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Combine the scraps and re-roll the dough to cut more cookies. You should get about 24 large heart cookies.
• Freeze for 10 minutes: Put the sheet in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking to help the cookies hold their shape.

• Bake: Bake the trays of cookies for 10-12 minutes, until the edges are just starting to take on color and they have lost the raw shine in the middle.
• Cool: Let them cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then remove them to wire racks to cool completely before decorating them.

To Make the Royal Icing

• Mix meringue powder and water: Combine 1.8 oz (6 TBSP) meringue powder and 6 floz (3/4 cup) water in the bowl of a large stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix them together on medium speed until foamy.
• Sift in powdered sugar, then add corn syrup and flavoring: Stop the mixer and sift 24 oz (6 cups) powdered sugar over the bowl. Beat on low speed until the sugar is incorporated. Scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl, then add 2 tsp corn syrup and 1/2 tsp flavoring.

• Mix until stiff: Turn the mixer speed back to medium-high and mix for 5 minutes, until the royal icing is shiny, stiff, bright white, and voluminous. Do not mix on the highest speed, and do not mix for more than 5 minutes.
• Divide and color remaining icing: Separate out half of the icing to leave plain white. Decide how many icing colors you want, and divide the remaining icing into that many bowls. Add a few drops of gel food coloring to each bowl of icing and stir by hand until the color is evenly distributed.

• Reserve thick icing for piped roses, if desired: The frosting consistency right out of the mixer is fairly stiff, but for most of the designs, we’ll want a thinner consistency. The only thing that will require a thicker consistency is piping stiff rosettes onto decorated cookies. If you want to make this design, separate out a portion of stiff frosting in the color(s) of your choice, and store it in an airtight container.
• Thin the icing with water: For all of the other designs, thin the frosting colors out by adding a small spoonful of water at a time, and stirring slowly until it’s incorporated. You have the right consistency when you lift up a spoonful of icing, let it drip back into the bowl, and it takes about 15 seconds for the trail of icing to fully disappear in the bowl.
• Fit and fill piping bags: Place each color in a piping bag fitted with a small round tip (I recommend a #2 tip).

To Decorate the Cookies

For the best results, work in small batches of 2-3 cookies at a time, to avoid having the royal icing dry out before the cookies are fully decorated.

• Outline a few cookies: The first step in all of these designs is flooding your cookie with a white royal icing base. Draw a thin outline with the white royal icing around the outside of a few cookies.
• Flood a few cookies: Next fill the center of the outlined cookies with royal icing. If you miss any spots, use a toothpick or a scriber tool to smooth out any rough lines.
• Choose a design: Make sure to work quickly to decorate the cookies after they have been flooded. Details for swirled hearts, zigzags, elegant roses and small rosettes follow below.

Swirled Heart Cookies

Hearts are probably the easiest design to do, but that doesn’t mean they’re plain or boring! I LOVE a simple border of hearts all along the edge of the cookie–it just looks so classy and elegant. Here’s how you do it:

• Pipe dots of icing around the edge: Take a freshly flooded sugar cookie and pipe dots of color along the outer edge of the icing. The dots should sink into the wet white icing fairly quickly.

• Drag a toothpick through the dots: Take a toothpick or scriber tool and, starting at the top center of the heart, drag it through the line of colored dots. The dragging motion will create an elongated heart shape in each dot.

Zig-zag Designs

Making zig-zag designs is almost as easy as the hearts!

• Pipe alternating lines of color: First, pipe lines of alternating colors horizontally across the white icing.

• Drag a toothpick downward through the lines: Take a toothpick and drag it through the lines vertically.
• Next drag upwards: Once at the bottom of the cookie, move the toothpick over a little bit (about 1/8”) and drag it upwards, creating a zig-zag in the opposite direction.
• Repeat: Continue this pattern until you’ve created lines across the whole cookie.

Elegant Rose Cookies

This elegant rose technique is one of my favorites! It’s a design I first saw on SweetAmbs, and she gets all the credit for introducing me to this cool and easy abstract flower design. The roses will have an impressionistic look, but once you add a few leaves around the edges, everyone will know what they are.

• Pick two shades of icing from the same color: These roses look best when made with two different shades of the same color, like pale pink and dark pink or light blue and dark blue.
• Pipe a few dots of the lighter icing: Start with the lighter color of icing and pipe several blobs on top of the cookie—refer to the picture tutorial to get a general idea of the shape.
• Pipe a line of the darker icing: Take the darker icing color and pipe a line across the center of the blob.
• Pipe a dot of white: Finally, add a dot of white in the center.

• Swirl the colors together: Now for the fun part! Take a toothpick and start swirling the colors together. It should only take a few swirls before they start to look like abstract roses.
• Make leaves: Add a few dots of green around the edges, and pull the dots of green out with a toothpick so they look like leaves.

Small Rosettes

Finally, you can use a stiff-consistency icing to pipe easy rosettes and leaves on top of your (hardened) decorated cookies, to give them a more 3D look. I liked doing this on both plain white and cookies that have been decorated with dots, stripes, zig-zags, etc. Both versions turn out beautifully.

• Allow decorated cookies to set: Let the base cookies sit and dry for at least an hour before adding the stiff rosettes on top.
• Use stiff consistency icing: Place stiff consistency frosting in a piping bag fitted with a small star tip.
• Make a rosette swirl: Start a swirl of icing moving from the center outward to make a rosette shape. You can do just 1 flower or several bunched together.
• Add stars and leaves: Intersperse small stars piped between the rosettes. Finish by adding small leaves around the edges of the flower cluster.

🍪 Storing Royal Icing Sugar Cookies

You can enjoy the cookies the same day they’re made – just let the royal icing set for at least 2 hours, then serve and enjoy!

How long does royal icing take to harden?

If you won’t be eating the cookies right away, you’ll want to store them without damaging the decorations. To stack or package the cookies, the royal icing needs to be completely dry and hard throughout, otherwise the icing will get smeared or smashed.

Let the cookies sit in a single layer, at room temperature, for at least 12 hours to be sure the royal icing is fully dry. If you are in a humid climate, you may need to give them up to 24 hours to fully harden. I find having an oscillating fan pointing at the cookies can speed up the drying process and help them dry more evenly.  

Storing Sugar Cookies at Room Temperature

Once set, the cookies can be stacked and stored in an airtight container between sheets of waxed paper or parchment. Store the cookies at room temperature for up to two weeks – do not refrigerate them, as the humidity can cause the icing to soften and dissolve. 

Freezing Sugar Cookies with Royal Icing

Decorated cookies can also be frozen for up to 6 months. The defrosting process can make the icing bleed or become sticky, so for the best results, I recommend packaging the cookies individually (for instance, in sealed plastic bags) and then placing them in a plastic container in the freezer.

Let them defrost at room temperature while still in the plastic container – this can help cut down on colors bleeding or other moisture issues. You may still see some changes in the icing, so if you are planning on freezing cookies for an important event, do a test run first to see how they hold up for you. 

💡 Sugar Cookie and Royal Icing FAQs

Whether you are an old pro or just getting started with royal icing, take a look at these helpful tips to avoid common mistakes.

Bonus Baking Idea: Hot Fudge Sauce Brownies

Hot fudge sauce isn’t just good on top of brownies – it’s a great brownie ingredient, too! Give your brownies an even more intense chocolate flavor with this easy brownie hack.

Make a batch of brownie batter (either from a box or homemade) and spread it in a pan. Drizzle 1/2 cup of hot fudge sauce over the top, and use a knife or toothpick to swirl it into the batter before baking as normal.

💭 Serving Suggestions

There are so many different ways you can serve caramel sauce! Swirl it into frosting for cupcakes, drizzle it over ice cream or cheesecake, use it as part of another recipe, or just eat it with a spoon.

Here are some of my favorite recipes to make using this homemade caramel:

Salted Caramel Apple Pear PieSalted Caramel BarsSalted Caramel Hot ChocolateBaileys Chocolate Caramel TartsCaramel Shortbread Squares

🍊Chocolate Orange Layer Cake

I’ve loved the combination of chocolate and orange ever since I first discovered a chocolate orange in my Christmas stocking as a child. Something about the contrast between rich, dark chocolate and bright, zesty orange flavor just hits all the right notes for my taste buds.

This towering Chocolate Orange Cake features 4 thick layers of chocolate cake, brushed with orange simple syrup for extra flavor and moisture. It’s stacked with zesty orange buttercream, and decorated with glossy chocolate ganache and–as tribute to those Christmas stocking treasures from long ago–finished with chocolate orange slices.

I hope you love this recipe as much as my family does! It’s an ultra-decadent cake that’s just bursting with chocolate and orange flavor. It’s a wonderful cure to the drab winter blues, but I can honestly eat it year-round!

🧾 What You’ll Need

Ingredients

Because there are several different components to this tall layer cake, the ingredient list is a bit long. Fortunately, most of the ingredients are baking staples you probably already have. Below I’ve listed out specialty ingredients and a few tips to help you gather what you need. You can find the full list of ingredients in the recipe card below.
(Links are affiliate links and I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.)

Chocolate Cake

• Unsweetened cocoa powder: Since this cake gets all of its chocolate flavor from cocoa powder, I recommend using a high-quality, dutch-processed cocoa powder (also known as alkalized cocoa powder). Cheap cocoa powders can be nearly flavorless, or worse, impart a bitter, dusty, or stale flavor. My personal favorite is Cacao Barry Extra Brute – it hits that sweet spot between very high-quality and affordability since it is sold in bulk.
• Butter:  Use unsalted butter, and leave it at room temperature for about 30 minutes before you start baking so it can soften. See ‘Cake Tips’ in the tips section for more information about using butter.
• Eggs:  You’ll need large eggs for the cake batter (not extra large or medium). Allow them to come to room temperature before using them but letting them rest on the counter for about 30 minutes.

Buttercream Frosting

• Unsweetened chocolate:  To give the chocolate frosting a deep, rich flavor, use unsweetened chocolate. You’ll only need 1 oz, so if you’d prefer to economize, use any high-quality chocolate you have on hand that has a high percentage of cacao in it.
• Pasteurized egg whites: This frosting recipe is a little different, in that it uses pasteurized egg whites from a carton. They are usually sold right next to the eggs in the refrigerated section. YES, it is safe to consume uncooked egg whites as long as they have been pasteurized! If you can’t find pasteurized egg whites in a carton, buy some pasteurized eggs from the store and separate them yourself – you’ll need about 6 egg whites for this recipe.
• Orange gel food coloring: To get a bright orange colored buttercream, I like to use orange gel food coloring. Unlike liquid food coloring, you only need to use a little gel coloring to achieve a vibrant shade. My preferred brand is Americolor.
• Orange oil: Note this is NOT orange essential oil–it’s a flavoring oil specifically meant for food. I love it because it provides a big POP of orange flavor with just a few drops! Lor-Ann is my favorite brand of orange oil. You can substitute orange extract if you don’t have the oil, but you might need to add a little extra since the extract is less potent.
• Orange zest: Adding delicate orange zest to the buttercream gives it a fresh orange flavor.
• Citric acid: This is optional, since it will probably need to be purchased online, but if you can track it down, I HIGHLY recommend it! Citric acid is my secret ingredient for making extremely realistic fruit desserts. It’s a granular white powder (similar in texture to salt) and is SUPER sour. Just a pinch will add a realistic tangy flavor to any fruit dessert. You can get a whole pound of it for about $12, and that amount will last forever!

💡 Tips For Success

Cake Tips

This chocolate cake recipe is pretty straight-forward and forgiving. Even if it’s slightly overbaked, it still turns out moist and delicious! Don’t forget to prep your pan with parchment circles, and a generous layer of pan release or nonstick spray.

This is an all-butter cake, which is my favorite type of chocolate cake to make. Using butter instead of oil gives the cake more flavor, makes it less prone to a greasy texture, and also makes the cake sturdy enough for layering. Chocolate butter cakes can also be turned into great cupcakes, and if you’re looking for a no-fail cupcake, check out my Chocolate Cupcake recipe. 

Even though the cake is moist, I still like to add a little extra insurance–and flavor!–by brushing it with an orange simple syrup. This easy recipe is just orange juice and sugar, heated until the sugar dissolves. Once cool, use a pastry brush to spread the syrup on each layer. Bam! Your cakes are now extra-moist and tinged with orange flavor!

Buttercream Tips

The frosting is a variation of my Easiest Swiss Meringue Buttercream. There are full instructions in the recipe card above, but if you want to learn more in-depth about the recipe, please check out my stand-alone buttercream recipe post–it has lots of step-by-step pictures, tips, and tricks for frosting perfection!

FAQs

🍫 A Healthier Chocolate Spread Option

Are you a chocolate lover looking for a sweet recipe that fits your dietary needs? Look no further! We’re excited to share with you our new recipe for a rich and creamy sugar-free chocolate spread.

This recipe is a variation of our popular “lick the knife clean” chocolate spread, which uses regular granulated sugar and dark chocolate. After getting lots of questions from readers about how to adapt the recipe to remove the sugar, we came up with this version. 

This sugar-free recipe uses a 1:1 sugar replacer and sugar-free chocolate, making it a great choice for those following a sugar-free diet. It has just as much chocolate flavor as the original, without any of the added refined sugars.   

In this post, we’ll walk you through the simple steps to make this creamy sugar-free chocolate spread at home. With just a few ingredients and about 10 minutes, you’ll be enjoying a delicious treat that fits your dietary needs. So go ahead, give it a try, and let us know what you think!

1. Prepare ingredients. Finely chop 4oz (2/3 cup) sugar-free dark chocolate and cube 5 oz (1.25 sticks) softened unsalted butter. Set aside.
2. Combine water, sweetener, cocoa powder and salt. In a small saucepan, combine 2 fl oz (1/4 cup) water, 1/2 cup sugar replacement, 1 TBSP unsweetened cocoa powder, and a pinch of salt. 

3. Stir and simmer: Place the pan over medium heat and stir until the sugar and cocoa powder dissolve. Continue to heat the pan, stirring frequently, until it reaches a simmer.
4. Add vanilla, chopped chocolate and butter: Once simmering, remove the pan from the heat and add 1 tsp vanilla extract, previously chopped chocolate, and 4 oz cubed butter. 

5. Whisk until smooth: Whisk until the chocolate and butter melt and the mixture is completely smooth.
6. When it is freshly made, this spread will have the consistency of hot fudge sauce.

💭 Tips

Choosing a sugar replacement: Different sugar replacers have different flavors and aftertastes, and if you are new to using them, it might take you a few tries to find one you enjoy best. For me, some brands have a strong and unpleasant aftertaste, while others I don’t notice at all.

Additionally, some can have a “cooling” feeling in the mouth – this may bother you, or you may not even notice. The point is, while this recipe will work with a number of sugar replacers, it may require a little experimentation on your part to discover your personal favorite.

This recipe was tested with Splenda and Swerve sweeteners. Both worked well, but my personal favorite was Swerve. It did have a slight cooling in the mouth, but it didn’t bother me, and I didn’t notice any aftertaste or funky flavor. Your milage may vary.

To make it dairy-free: substitute the butter for an equal amount of coconut oil – no need to melt it first. Add it in when you would add the butter. Note that your spread will probably have a light coconut-chocolate flavor, unless you’re using refined coconut oil. See our full recipe for Dairy-Free Chocolate Spread for more information.