Decorating a plain looking tart

[ellencho]

So a friend of my mother's has been exceedingly nice to me and I want to bake a tart for her in thanks. I'm planning on making a sweet tart crust, baking that, and then making a chai flavored pastry cream to fill the crust.

How can I embellish this to make it look a little bit more interesting? I was thinking of possibly garnishing the top with some toasted pistachios but if there's anything fancier a home baker can do I'd love the suggestions.

[Sneakeater]

Fishnets and bright red lipstick.

[Sneakeater]

(Sorry. Couldn't help myself.)

[K8memphis]

Umm, you can cut out leaves out of the crust scraps and place them around the edge for a fancy flute or place them anywhere. If you put them around the edge, you will need to make a bit extra crust even. And overlap them a bit.

You could make a couple snakes y'know by rolling dough out on the counter and twist them together to make a sort of braid. Attach to the edges of the tart & then bake. Attach with water or an egg wash.

Before baking I like to brush my crusts with milk and sprinkle with sugar for a nice finish.

You could tint the dough and bake any kind of decor you could imagine with cookie cutters etc. Polka dot pie, lightening bolt pie, apple pie hahaha--cut out 'apples', bake, and place on the filling.

Berries, can you get any berries to decorate?

Chocolate, yes chocolate anything would be cool--ooh ooh, bake the leaves, dip part of it in chocolate!!! White or choco or colored choco. Way cool and easy peasy!!

[alanamoana]

please take a look at the "what we ate for dessert thread"

recently (within the past two or three days) PatrickS made a chocolate tart with a mousse piped in a spiral on top. that was also dusted with cocoa. very simple, clean and elegant. there's photo.

you can do this with whipped cream or even the chai filling you're using or something that contrasts in color but pairs with the chai well.

you can make chocolate shavings

you can make chocolate fans or curls and pile them on top

you can make a stencil and dust the top with cocoa to make a nice design on top

So a friend of my mother's has been exceedingly nice to me and I want to bake a tart for her in thanks. I'm planning on making a sweet tart crust, baking that, and then making a chai flavored pastry cream to fill the crust.

How can I embellish this to make it look a little bit more interesting? I was thinking of possibly garnishing the top with some toasted pistachios but if there's anything fancier a home baker can do I'd love the suggestions.

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[ellencho]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I'm considering either a white chocolate mousse on top of the chai pastry cream or just using white chocolate shavings plus the chopped pistachios on top of the tart. It depends on how much extra time I have this weekend. I'm hesitant to go with the white chocolate mousse though, because I'd hate to take the focus away from the chai pastry cream.