Mother's Day dessert recipe: Sugared phyllo cups with fresh cream and fruit: Day 48

Continuing on with my wish list of what I would like made for me for Mother’s Day, I eyed up the photo of the Sugared phyllo cups with fresh cream and fruit recipe in the Chatelaine cookbook. I intend on being spoiled rotten on Mother’s Day – and this light and refreshing dessert will be the perfect after meal treat. Don’t you agree?

I tried this out on my friends who were visiting us from Winnipeg for a few days. We had eaten a lot during their stay here – sampling the treats from our local Portuguese bakery one night and devouring pie and crème brûlée the next – so I thought that a light dessert was in order.

I’m a fan of things that look pretty. The presentation of these fruity cups was right up my alley. Anything you make with phyllo pastry usually turns out pleasing to the eye. And I loved that I could make the cups ahead (the morning of), quickly make whipped cream after dinner and have our dinner guests choose a berry combination to their liking.

The recipe was so simple, too, that there was no room for error: I would not be over-stirring anything (see my Best-ever brownies recipe blunder) or setting off the smoke detector (see my Shared steak with shiitake mushroom sauce post). All I had to do was brush some butter on some phyllo sheets, sprinkle with sugar, stack, cut, place into position and bake for 7 to 9 minutes.

Washing the berries and chopping the strawberries was assigned to one of the visiting houseguests, while the other was ordered to grate the lime rind that was to be added to the whipped cream. And why not enlist their help? Firstly, my two-year-old is far too young to be assigned either of those tasks and secondly, I had already impressed them the previous day by baking up a fresh batch of Scrumptious white chocolate scones while they slept – they turned out great, so I had nothing more to prove!

It was time for dessert, so I placed the tray on the table. Some of the cups were already filled with fruit and freshly whipped cream. Others I left empty so that people could have the option of filling them to their liking with blueberries, black berries and/or strawberries and the fresh cream. I had also made some dark chocolate shavings by running a vegetable peeler along the edge of a bar of chocolate.

My husband was the first to speak up after taking a bite. “Honey, did you put any sugar in the whipped cream?” No, I hadn’t. I had literally added only lime rind. “I think it needs to be sweeter,” he said, while sprinkling some sugar onto his fruit cup and then passing the dispenser around the table. I didn’t look to see how many dinner guests added sugar to their dessert. I was too busy trying to take a bite of my own without having unsweetened whipped cream touch my nose. I was almost successful. And, yes, the whipped cream did need to be sweeter. Oops. Next time, I’ll add sugar and perhaps some vanilla before whipping it. Or maybe my husband will make me some fresh whipped cream for Mother’s Day. I suppose I’ll soon find out!