Dessert sauce drizzled or poured on the plate. Dessert sauce examples include caramel sauce, custard, crème anglaise, chocolate sauce, dulce de leche, fruit sauces such as blueberry sauce, raspberry sauce and strawberry sauce. Raspberry sauce may be strained using a sieve to remove the seeds from the sauce. Dessert sauce adds flavor, moisture, texture, and color to desserts. It may be cooked or uncooked. Dessert sauce is sometimes prepared as a hard sauce with the addition of alcoholic beverages, such as bourbon, brandy or liqueur. Desserts with hard sauces can be served flambéed because the ethyl alcohol in distilled beverages is flammable.
Dessert flavourings include dried, candied or fresh fruit, nuts, cocoa or extracts. They may be filled with fruit preserves or dessert sauces (like pastry cream), iced with buttercream or other icings, and decorated with marzipan, piped borders, or candied fruit. Cake is often served as a celebratory dish on ceremonial occasions, for example weddings, anniversaries, and birthdays. Small-sized cakes have become popular, in the form of cupcakes and petits fours. Chocolate is a typically sweet, usually brown, food preparation of "Theobroma cacao" seeds, roasted, ground, and often flavored. Pure, unsweetened chocolate contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions.