What can you do with a leftover sponge cake?

That delicious will get stale unless you preserve it correctly. It can feel like a tragedy, but don’t despair: with a little imagination, you can transform even the most dried-out slices into something awesome and delicious. Check out these creative ways to repurpose leftover cake.

1. Cake Pops

Cake pops are the cutest imaginable use for leftover cake, which basically goes without saying. Just crumble the cake, add buttercream or cream cheese icing, and squeeze until mushy. Form into little balls, then cover with candy melts or melted chocolate to seal in the moisture.

2. Cake French toast

French toast can conserve both your leftover cake and your day-old bread. Make an egg batter, coat the cake slices, then griddle until toasty on the edges.

3. Ice Cream Mix-Ins

Stir cake crumbs into softened ice cream for the nicest homemade dessert. Or you can keep it simple and spoon those crumbs on top of a scoop and dig in.

4. Cake Shakes

Crumble stale cake, frosting and all, then throw it into a blender with a couple scoops of ice cream and milk. It will taste identical to your childhood birthday celebrations.

5. Trifle

This English dish was designed to soak up fruit juices and custard like a dream. To make a trifle, layer cake crumbles with fruit, custard and whatever other ingredients go well with the flavor of your cake.

6. Grilled Cake

When served with ice cream or fresh fruit, it’s a genius move to warm up leftover cake on the grill. It will help bring out the taste, much like toasting stale bread. Sturdy cakes, like pound cake, work best, but you can grill any cake by setting it on top of foil first.

7. Not-Bread Puddings

It’s similar to bread pudding, but not quite. Substitute any type of cake — from leftover coffee cake to chiffon — for bread in your favorite recipe, then bake as normal.

8. Crumbled-Cake Pie Crusts

Use cake crumbles instead of cookie crumbs in any cookie pie crust recipe. Indeed, it’s that simple.

9. Deep-Fried Cake Snacks

Everyone who has ever been to a state fair will tell you that deep-frying makes everything taste better. Coating cake chunks in batter adds moisture and crunch, and once you fry it you get a wow-worthy dessert the whole fam will love munching on.

10. Brownie Mix-Ins

Fold in some finely chopped or crumbled leftover cake the next time you make brownies. It’ll add a subtle note of texture to your dessert while using up that dried cake.

11. Charlotte

A charlotte is a stately vintage dessert that consists of ladyfingers lining a pan of mousse or custard topped with fruit. Sounds delectable, doesn’t it? Substitute slivers of leftover cake for the ladyfingers and voila — a reimagined dessert that tastes just as delicious as the classic.