Web exclusive photography Take some dessert ideas from the World Pastry Cup to help inspire new desserts for your operation. Use a variety of new flavor combinations to jazz up traditional dessert or use new moulds to add a different shape to your product line. For more information about the competition and about Pastry Team USA 2009, visit www.worldpastrycupusa.com/index.html.

Competitions provide plenty of fresh ideas that can be incorporated into new products for your operation, and the Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie (Pastry World Cup) held in Lyon, France in January was no exception. Teams from 22 countries wowed the audience and judges with sugar towers and artistically garnished cakes and frozen desserts. Team France won a resounding victory for its evocative, Amazon-themed entries with Italy and Belgium coming in second and third, respectively. Although you may not have the staff to completely reproduce the labor-intensive desserts, you can take some ideas and modify them to fit your market.

Contest rules dictated that each team prepare one chocolate dessert and one frozen dessert to serve 10 people in addition to a plated dessert and three showpieces—one each in ice, chocolate and sugar. Each team selected a theme, which was reflected in the appearance, ingredients and flavors of each entry. For its Native American themed entries, Team USA for example, took inspiration from the quintessential American dessert—apple pie. Team chefs used Granny Smith apples to make ice cream, which they moulded into an apple shaped log.

The James Bond theme chosen by Team Netherlands allowed it to take advantage of a faceted mould to create an outstanding diamond-shaped ice cream cake. While this elaborate preparation involved freezing numerous alternating layers of sorbet, the striking shape could be imitated in a simple manner using silicone forms. Another mould gave a dynamic dark chocolate swirl to the top of the team's Chocolate 007 cake, which featured a layer of chocolate crumble alternating with an almond crumble garnish. This gave the cake added texture and a tailored appearance. Macaroons, teardrop-shaped meringues and coconut cookies performed a similar role on the Hungarian, Japanese and Brazilian entries.

Team Netherlands’ James Bond theme inspired this diamond shaped cake with alternating layers of sorbet.

You also can take inspiration from some of the creative flavor combinations used by the contestants. Team USA made a buttery lime cookie to accompany its Key lime custard, using wheat flour instead of graham cracker crumbs. Team China paired blood orange with hazelnuts and chocolate, a twist on the familiar citrus/cocoa pairing, and Team Finland spiked its chocolate torte with Kahlua, ginger and coffee. Sometimes just a simple change—pairing poppy seeds in a cheesecake cream as the Hungarians did—is all it takes to modernize a classic. The easy availability of dried fruits, especially in their intense freeze-dried, powdered form, makes it easy to add a punch of flavor.

Pearlized finishes added a magical sheen to the Belgian frozen dessert, decked with flakes of edible glitter. Teams Morocco and Japan covered their cakes with a matte finish on one half and the other half with a shiny glaze, another trick that is easy to incorporate by using buttercream icing and prepared glacage or glaze. Even fruit caviar, made by Team Singapore, which it featured on a raspberry and nougatine dessert, is available from suppliers.

To help commemorate 20 years since the Coupe du Monde de la Patisserie's founding in 1989, Coupe organizers created a dessert easily adapted to many types of outlets. This elegant chocolate torte combines almonds and bittersweet chocolate with an apricot and a white chocolate garnish. To begin, a light layer of cocoa genoise blended with ground almonds is covered with a dense chocolate ganache. Once portioned, the cake slices are garnished with white chocolate mousse, caramel-dipped almonds and apricot almond brittle. Here the torte is it prepared on a sheet pan, but you also can use four round torte rings to bring a flavor of the World Cup to your operation.