Why Nature-Inspired Desserts Are Sprouting on Menus Across the Country

Showcase your love of gardening and baking by trying a dessert inspired by your favorite natural features, like the ones offered at these restaurants.

If 2020 and 2021 were the years of outdoor living, due to a pandemic-related shift in entertaining and all of us craving an escape from being cooped up, 2022 and 2023 are all about bringing the outside back in. (While still embracing the best of al fresco entertaining, of course!) From woodsy wallpaper and forestcore to the soft spring aesthetic and biophilic design, several of the latest home trends embrace natural elements to welcome a calming, lush, and harmonious energy into a space.

While homes and gardens earn naming rights with our magazine, we also have a keen focus on all things food, too. So we were delighted to see that the trend towards all things natural in an indoor setting isn’t just staying in the dining room, bedroom, and living room; it’s also making its way to the kitchen—and onto many restaurant menus.

A BHG contributor first spotted this trend bubbling up in Colombia while on vacation in February. At Humo inside the Sofitel Barú Calablanca resort, the pastry team assembled an intricate dessert with a simple name: “Bonsai.” It resembled exactly that thanks to an Amazonian chocolate "trunk," pistachio sponge cake "foliage," and cocoa crumble "dirt" to cover up the spiced mango chutney and saffron-infused yogurt land hiding beneath.

A few months before, they had featured an awe-inspiring hummingbird-topped bûche de Noël that was inspired by the natural landscape surrounding the property. (Per square mile, Colombia is the most biodiverse country on the planet, the World Wildlife Fund reports.)

Around that same time, Delilah in the Wynn Las Vegas was offering a stunning and shareable Beehive Baked Alaska with mandarin sorbet, sweet lemon ice cream, almond financier, toasted honey meringue, and honeycomb candy.

Then in April, we noticed the trend growing into Napa, where it sprouted up just in time for spring on the menu at Forum, a restaurant at Meadowood Napa Valley. We were so blown away by the contrast of the tough-looking rock exterior and the fluffy, cloud-like chocolate mousse interior that we couldn’t resist reaching out to Kristin Davison, pastry chef at Meadowood, for the dirt on the dessert.

“The plating on the Valrhona Caramelia stemmed from the desire to create a dessert with a sense of place. I wanted it to feel like a little bit of Napa Valley on a plate,” Davison tells BHG. “The Valrhona Caramelia is actually the second rendition of the dessert. This version has a lighter mousse that bridges the gap between the rainy winter we had here at Meadowood and the beginning of spring. It will soon morph again as seasonal fruit starts to peak.”

To try this trend at home, take a look around at your own natural landscape and approach it through a curious lens. What catches your eye, speaks to the season, or offers a sense of place for your home? Then consider your favorite dessert elements, be they fruit or chocolate, cake or cookies, bars or brownies. Use your answers to all of these questions to direct the course of your signature nature-inspired dessert.

The Better Homes & Gardens Test Kitchen couldn’t resist getting in on the action. Come early spring, we’re sweet on this Zucchini-Carrot Cake with edible candy carrots and pistachio “rocks,” then a bit later in the season, it’s time to harvest some bloom-shaped Easy Flower Macarons with lemon curd filling. And when summer slips into fall, we celebrate harvest time with a Strawberry Pumpkin Patch. No matter the season, bringing the outdoors in sure is sweet.

For more Better Homes & Gardens news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on Better Homes & Gardens.