How to preserve a homemade dessert: a simple guide to correctly do it

How to preserve the taste, compactness and aroma of the donut cake that is left over from Sunday lunch? How long can we keep an ice cream cake or a tart? And the biscuits and the pandoro, then? Here is a simple guide to preserve all types of homemade desserts in the right way.

Donut cakes, biscuits, cheesecakes and muffins: preparing them is always a pleasure but how long can we preserve them and above all how to correctly do it? Whether it is for a special occasion or for a simple and genuine homemade snack, more and more often we try our hand at homemade pastry-making: but, since nothing must be thrown away in the kitchen, we must know how to preserve our desserts so that they do not lose taste and compactness. A donut cake will be differently preserved than a tiramisu and even the seasons can make a difference: here is a simple guide to preserve all types of desserts in the correct way.

Some always valid rules

Whatever the dessert you have prepared, it is important to know that the worst enemy of your preparations is the air: in fact, in contact with air, the desserts quickly lose their flavor and compactness, becoming very often dry. The leavened cakes (donut cakes and margherita cake, for example) can be preserved with special plastic or silicone cake bells, the dry biscuits are best preserved in an airtight container, possibly made of glass or tin, while the "refrigerator" desserts must always be covered with the transparent film. Let's see in detail how and for how long to preserve the different types of homemade desserts.

1. Donut cakes, muffins and leavened desserts

The best way to preserve donut cakes, muffins and plum cakes is to preserve them under a cake bell and out of the refrigerator, so at room temperature. As an alternative to the bell, you can preserve your leavened cakes in the oven (off, of course), as long as they do not contain any type of cream; in both cases the desserts will be preserved for a maximum of 4 days. During the summer months, the advice is to preserve the cakes in the refrigerator to prevent the heat from drying them and ruining them.

2. Tarts and shortbread

The tarts can be preserved at room temperature for a maximum of 3 days, a time beyond which the jam will probably acquire a not very pleasant taste. If you have stuffed your tart with cream, it is preferable to preserve it in the refrigerator and take it out 30 minutes before serving. Also in the case of tarts and shortbreads, during the warmer months, preservation in the refrigerator is preferable.

3. Cheesecake, Tiramisu and cold cakes

The name says it all, they are cold cakes and they do not like too high temperatures: tiramisu and cheesecake go into the refrigerator, unless you want to transform them into milkshakes. They are cold, they must be tasted strictly cold and they cannot be preserved for more than 2 or 3 days before losing their taste and consistency.

4. Ice cream cakes

In this case, the preservation times can go up to 30 days, as long as you take care to keep your ice cream cakes in the freezer, not in the refrigerator. To best enjoy them, we advise you to take them out 5 minutes before serving them.

5. Cookies and dry pastries

Get a tin cookie jar or a glass container possibly with airtight closure: in this way you can preserve your dry cookies for a week, at room temperature. If your cookies are stuffed, the preservation method does not change but the times are reduced to a maximum of 3 days.

6. Cakes with any type of cream

Regardless of the base, if you used creams (custard, chantilly, lemon, yogurt) to fill your desserts, your dessert must be preserved in the refrigerator for a maximum of 2-3 days.

7. Panettone, pandoro and brioches

To best preserve panettone, brioches and pandoro, the advice is to keep them at room temperature, in this way they will remain soft and fragrant for up to two days: panettone and pandoro better to keep them in a tightly closed food bag, while for brioches it is better a cake bell. If they become dry and lose the softness, heat them for a few seconds in the microwave oven and they will come back as freshly baked.