“Dessert is not the time to say no.”

Photo: Food & Wine / Getty Images

I would trust Anne Hathaway with my life. If she told me florals were in, I might start wearing patterns for the first time in a decade. If she said I’d look better with a bob, I would honestly consider cutting off most of my hair. So when the Academy Award-winning actress declares that she’s an expert at ordering dessert (which she’s done on both The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Kelly Clarkson Show), I’m taking notes.

While listening to a recent episode of Knead to Know — the baking podcast from chef Gemma Stafford and co-hosts Ami Shukla and Tianna Cohen — I learned that Hathaway recently shared another tidbit of her sweet wisdom in an interview with Kelly Clarkson. Naturally I zoomed over to YouTube to find out what she said (don’t worry, I’ll spill the beans), and realized it’s high time someone summarized all of the Devil Wears Prada star’s dessert tips for the world as a public service. So, here they are — from game planning your order to the best way to eat a cupcake, and more.

Order more than one item off the dessert menu

When Kelly Clarkson asked Hathaway last month how she avoids order envy — that dreaded moment at a restaurant when you realize you wish you’d ordered what someone else did — the actress’ response was simple. “Order both…. Dessert is not the time to say no.” So if you’re torn between the chocolate cake and plum tart (a scenario I was in last night), just get both.

Hathaway also points out that desserts are the kinds of dishes everyone will want a bite of. You’re probably familiar with that end-of-dinner moment where people waffle back and forth on whether or not they want dessert, with most of them saying they’re uninterested until one brave individual bites the bullet and places an order. Then once all the gelati, pies, and sweet treats arrive, everybody wants to take a forkful. So don’t be afraid, and ask for every dessert that sounds good to you — someone will inevitably help you eat them.

If the restaurant doesn’t have good bread, then don’t get the cake

This guidance gleaned from the same Kelly Clarkson interview might be a little more controversial. Hathaway posits that if an establishment’s complimentary bread service isn’t delicious, then how could its other baked goods be amazing? However, as the Knead to Know hosts point out, the person baking bread at a restaurant is often not the same chef who does the desserts.

On the other hand, many restaurants — including high-end ones — source their bread from bakeries and third-party suppliers. And if the person acquiring the bread doesn’t care about its quality, it’s likely that they wouldn’t be invested in having a great cake on the menu either. It’s safe to assume this is what the actress is getting at, and besides, I personally wouldn’t want to eat at a place with bad bread.

Turn your cupcake inside out

This is Anne Hathaway’s original and most viral dessert tip. (And it was also given on The Kelly Clarkson Show! Just a few years earlier, in 2022.) She teaches the talkshow host and Grammy Award winner that the easiest way to eat a cupcake is by tearing it in half horizontally, and then turning the top half upside down, so the frosting is sandwiched between two layers of cake.

According to Hathaway, this has two main advantages: You don’t get frosting on your nose and it makes cupcakes more casual. I have adopted this hack into my own life because it gives you the ideal ratio of ingredients. I don’t love overly sweet things, so biting into a mound of frosting first isn’t my favorite. Tasting cake, then icing, then cake, helps mute the sugar a little bit and delivers a more balanced bite.

Put in 10,000 hours

The same way you train for a marathon, you need to train for dessert. Ordering, making, tasting, every part takes practice, and as Anne Hathaway told Stephen Colbert in 2022, she’s “blown past” 10,000 hours in the art of dessert. And it shows — in an anecdote she recently related to Kelly Clarkson, Hathaway said she identified what kind of sauce (pear!) was drizzled over a cake at a dinner party, just by looking at it. That’s the kind of refined palate I aspire to have, and consequently I’ll be eating as much cake as possible in the upcoming months.

Embrace the power of a palate cleanser

Her final piece of advice admittedly comes from Hathaway’s Princess Diaries’ character Mia Thermopolis, but I’ll accredit it to the actress since her delivery makes the scene so memorable. In the first movie of the series, while dining at her first state dinner, Princess Mia is served a palate cleanser of mint sorbet in between courses. (She famously takes too big of a bite and instantly gets a brain freeze.)

I’m not certain that Mia appreciated the value of a palate cleanser at the time — she was distracted, after all — but this is a valuable lesson in how to prepare yourself for dessert. If you still have the taste of a garlicky main course in your mouth, it may be difficult to enjoy that slice of cheesecake. Mint sorbet isn’t the only viable palate cleanser; citrusy sorbets work well too, or you can have something more simple like a cup of tea or a piece of plain fruit.

With the power of Anne Hathaway’s guidance, you’ll be cleansing your palate and ordering dessert for the table in no time.