Easy, No Cook "Cheat" Desserts

Since I've been rather absent lately, I'm going to give you two recipes for the price of one! These are two "cheat" dessert recipes I came up with when I was in a pinch. As I mentioned before, Mr. JY, and I have been really busy lately house hunting and then purchasing our first home, so it's times like these I turn to super easy recipes like these. They are by no means fancy and some foodies might be appalled at them.... but, to me, they were beautiful, impressive, and delicious enough to serve to guests.

Easy Sugar Cookie Fruit Tarts

1 package of a dozen bakery sugar cookies (I got mine from Target)
1 tub of your favorite brand of cream cheese frosting (or, feel free to make your favorite homemade recipe)
An assortment of your favorite fruits


Procedure:

All you've got to do is first wash and slice up your fruit. I used fresh peaches, kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries. But whatever you like and looks good in the produce section would work. Just make sure you dry the fruit well before putting it on the cookies later.Next, very liberally ice your cookies with that delicious cream cheese frosting, and decorate your cookies with the fruit any ole way you'd like. And you're done! Put 'em on a pretty plate, and no one will be the wiser. They'll think you've been baking all day. You could also do some pretty neat variations of this recipe with lemon curd or chocolate ganache.... but that's another day and another entry.

Next up, we have.....

20 Layer Chocolate Hazelnut Crepe Cake

20 basic crepes (store bought - I recommend Melissa's brand - or homemade, using your favorite recipe) 1 - 8 oz pkg cream cheese (softened) 2 - 8 oz containers mascarpone cheese 1 - 3.4 oz vanilla instant pudding mix 3/4 cup milk 1-2 tsp vanilla extract (you could also use almond or orange for a nice variation) 1 container Nutella chocolate hazelnut spread Strawberries, whipped cream, & powdered sugar for garnish (optional) First, make your vanilla mascarpone cream by mixing up the softened cream cheese, vanilla pudding mix, vanilla extract, milk, and mascarpone cheese in a mixer until well combined. Then, get out your jar of Nutella (can we say... YUM?) and start layering! Slap a crepe down on a pretty dish, and slather on a real good amount of your vanilla mascarpone cream. Top with another crepe, more cream, and then, on your third layer, spread it with a good amount of Nutella. I said a good amount, don't skimp. That stuff is heavenly. Keep repeating with this method, every third layer Nutella, until you have all 20 layers done. I topped mine with a sprinkling of powdered sugar, and decorated it with strawberries and whipped cream, but you could do anything that blows your skirt up - drizzle it with chocolate ganache, whatever you like! This dessert looks totally impressive and you can take all the credit.