Ina Garten's Top Tip To Serve A Slice Of Cake Like The Pros

Need a lazy way to serve a slice of homemade cake that looks professional? Just do what Ina Garten does — spread a dollop of raspberry jam over your serving plate before placing your cake on top. Yes, it's super easy but the pared back simplicity of this technique makes any cake serving look instantly elegant in seconds. All it takes is using the back of a spoon to spread the jam out into a circle before neatly positioning a wedge of cake in the middle. 

Commonly employed in fancy restaurants, sauce plating makes any dish appear sophisticated, however, it also serves a couple of other useful purposes. Firstly, the sauce provides a layer of delicious flavor that complements the ingredients in the cake. In Garten's case, the fruity tartness of the raspberry jam balances out the richness of the cream cheese frosting in her coconut cake, further balanced with the handful of fresh raspberries that she uses as a garnish. Granted the jam is sweet, but it also has a subtle tartness that counteracts and brightens the taste of heavier cakes. The gentle aroma of sweet coconut and the tang of raspberries is also a classic flavor match, as showcased in this raspberry coconut cake recipe. 

Secondly, the viscosity of the fruit-laden preserve lends each mouthful of cake heaps of extra texture and moisture, which is useful when a cake is coated in a naturally dry ingredient, such as shredded coconut or chopped nuts.

While a pop of ruby-red against the starkness of a pale chiffon cake is attractive to the eye, you can easily experiment with different jams and sauces to create new aesthetic and flavor-forward combinations. For example, a lemon cake would pair wonderfully with blueberry jam, while a chunk of fudgy, uber-sweet chocolate brownie would be better-balanced against a smear of salted caramel sauce. The key thing to consider is that the sauce you select complements the cake in some way, either lifting its heaviness, lending it complexity (as in the case of the sea salt in caramel), or providing richness against a cake's feathery texture. It's even a good cheat if you haven't made the cake yourself, as a well-selected sauce will lend your dessert a homespun quality and flavor. 

Keep things simple with a basic circle design, or swoosh your sauce across the plate with a palette knife for a swankier look. You could even decant your sauce into a squeezy bottle (widely available online, like this OXO chef's squeeze bottle set) to make culinary drops and drizzles across your dish. Having said that, don't go overboard as there's something attractive about the professional plating trick of leaving a little negative space around your dish so it looks restaurant-ready; sometimes the simplest, safest option is the most swoon-worthy.