Thanksgiving Hacks To Make Your Store-Bought Dessert Feel Homemade

Inevitably, at the holidays there is a certain level of responsibility that is thrust upon someone. But with Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving, at least there is the opportunity for some of that responsibility to be better distributed by turning at least one course of the meal into a potluck-style, all-hands-on-deck situation. One of the easiest ways that we know how to do that is through passing off the responsibility of the dessert course to someone else.

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Let’s be honest though, we’re all a little busy, and despite that, still want to provide something tasty, worthwhile, and celebratory if that dessert responsibility falls on us during the holidays. So, we here at Sporked thought that it would be nice to give you a little guide to making it through the holidays in the style of Ina Garten. After all, “Store-bought is fine.” Here are the three dessert hacks we think are most valuable for you to keep in mind as we approach the Thanksgiving festivities.

Cheesecake

If cheesecake is the festive dessert that you hold close to your heart, then rest assured that there are abundant modifications that can be made to give it a more homemade touch. For starters, if you’re looking to get a standard vanilla cheesecake, then our simple suggestion would be to macerate some fruit and use it as a topping.

Macerating fruit is one of the most simple techniques as it simply requires you to have clean, bite-size fruit pieces and sugar. Whether you want to do mixed berries with blackberries, raspberries, and strawberries or would prefer to go all in on your favorite, all you have to do is coat the fruit in sugar (with perhaps a touch of salt), stir it all together, and let time do the rest of the work. In a couple of hours, you’ll not only have tender and delicately seasoned bites of fruit, but a beautiful syrup to dress the cheesecake with as well. Instantaneously, putting this on top of a cheesecake is not only a guaranteed flavor bomb, but it gives the cheesecake a fresh and homemade flavor without barely having to do any work at all. 

Pie

We touched on some simple hacks that you can use to modify the Costco 58-oz. pumpkin pie and more depth on our article here. But, as this is a more comprehensive list of hacks that are more versatile across different desserts we thought it would be a good time to mention it here, too.

Let’s say you only have time to really make one simple modification to a store-bought pie in the rush leading up to Thanksgiving events. In that case, the best thing you can do is simply make the whipped cream to top it off with from scratch. Sure, the can of Reddi Wip will do the trick in a pinch. But there’s nothing but indicates quality as obviously as a freshly whipped Chantilly cream.

With just a touch of sweetness and a hint of vanilla flavor, whipped cream is not only easy to make, but it can be made more complex too — if you’re feeling up to it. Adding a splash of bourbon or some warming spices can make things easily nuanced, or for a bit of a more extensive process, something like a mascarpone whipped cream would be delightful as well.

Cake

What is so useful about the cakes available in grocery store bakeries is that generally, during the fall/winter months, there are multiple flavors available. Whether you want to go a more traditional route with something like a pound cake or want to go really festive with some kind of pumpkin loaf, both are equally effective at converting easily into a homemade-presenting dessert. The thing that we like to do most with store-bought cake like this is turn it into a trifle.

It basically takes no time to prepare them. If you don’t have to make the cake component, then it’s really just layering cake with cream and some fruity or crunchy element if you feeling like it. If you’re going down the pumpkin route, rather than going with a traditional whipped cream and berries trifle, might we suggest flavors along the lines of pomegranate seeds paired with an orangey, zesty whipped cream. Not only is the final product something completely transformed from what you originally purchased, but honestly, it probably is gonna be difficult to tell that you didn’t make it completely from scratch anyhow. Regardless, a trifle is always visually very impressive, and it’s bound to be delicious.