6 Classic Desserts to Tempt Your Sweet Tooth in Delaware

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Pastry chef Dru Tevis has created a cornucopia of sweets, but when you see the Food Network star in a photo, he’s often holding a baked Alaska, a dome-shaped ice cream cake topped with browned meringue. The classic dessert is one of several that is always in style.

“They are familiar to everyone, so when you see them on a menu, they evoke a happy memory,” explains Tevis, the 2022 grand prize winner of the “Holiday Baking Championship.”

The nostalgia creates appeal that’s hard to resist. “I always write a dessert menu with that in mind. I want the customer to see it and think, I have to have that!” says Tevis, the pastry chef at Thompson Island Brewing Company in Rehoboth Beach.

These six classics—with or without a twist—are famous examples.

The showstopper

Many maintain that baked Alaska was named in 1867 when the United States purchased Alaska from Russia. Regardless, the igloo-shaped dessert is a scientific marvel. The insulating meringue keeps the ice cream from melting while the meringue caramelizes in the oven.

At Thompson Island, Tevis has used flourless chocolate cake for the base and added layers of dark chocolate sorbet, coffee ice cream, and vanilla ice cream. His vanilla meringue is studded with “crack” candy and drizzled with chocolate and caramel sauce.

30133 Veterans Way, Rehoboth; 226-4677; thompsonislandbrewing.com

Star of the South

Bananas Foster—made from bananas and vanilla ice cream with butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon sauce—is bathed in dark rum and banana liqueur before the server ignites it. The dessert is named for New Orleans businessman Richard Foster, a friend of Owen Brennan, owner of Brennan’s Restaurant. Reportedly, Brennan challenged his chef to use imported bananas in a dish.