If you had to do dessert for a family dinner...what’s your fail safe?

[mooncuplanding]

I’m a bit shit at baking and responsible for dessert tomorrow 🙈😬

About 10 people

What are your safest bets for such circumstances?

Chocolate bread and butter oudding

Pudding

Eton mess.
Most people love it, can be made in advance and requires no baking!

Lemon cheesecake - really easy and no baking involved

base is digestives crushed up, mixed with melted butter and pressed into a baking tin

Topping is juice of a lemon, Philadelphia cheese and condensed milk, all whizzed up together.

That's it!

Will find quantities if you want it.

Involves a bit of baking but chocolate brownies with some (bought obviously) ice cream and fruit such as raspberries. Brownies are mixed together in one bowl and bunged in the oven and it’s very difficult to get them wrong.

Yes please to quantities BIWI

Pineapple upside down cake. It always turns out amazingly well.

Bakewell pudding.

Apple and berry crumble. It’s so easy my 6 yo neice can do most of it by herself now.

As per name, pavlova. If there are any little kids that have not yet developed the taste for it, I give them an ice cream stick.

Golden syrup sponge and custard. Or Eton mess. We're quite fussy about puddings but all will eat these.

I made Eton mess in advance once and my meringue dissolved into the cream. So think sugary cream with strawberries. So disappointing.

My baking is too hit and miss to rely on.

My fail safes are platter of bought meringue nests and load with cream and berries. Not homemade but looks like you made an effort. Chocolate dipped strawberries left to set. Cheese and biscuits.

Cheesecake

Trifle. Sooooo easy. Premade custatd and whipped cream. Just have to make jelly really.

The minimal ingredients and no baking of Lemon cheesecake is appealing massively

Yes it sounds good.

My failsafe is M&S. I go there, look at what nice desserts they've got for sale and by the nicest one.

If you're shit at baking (like me) don't bother trying to impress with home baking, just buy something nice.

I do make a lovely key lime pie, but it takes ages and is a right faff, so I don't bother very often.

Bakewell tart.

Chocolate orange cheesecake or Apple cake and custard. Cheesecake needs chilling overnight but the Apple cake can be done easily tomorrow

Pavlova or meringue nests.

I love baking and I'm good at it, but if I'm busy or it's stressing me out I just buy something. There is no shame in that either.

I tend to do pavlova, but it’s not impossible to cock that up.

If you want something completely foolproof then some sort of chocolate mousse is a good bet. I do Nigel Slater’s white chocolate and cardamom mousse with a dark chocolate sauce - but most chocolate mousses are just a question of following instructions, melting the chocolate slowly at a very low heat in the microwave (don’t faff about with bowls balanced over pans of boiling water) and stirring frequently.

Eton Mess. Easiest pudding on the planet. Plus, made to order, it has the added benefit of having fruit for those who are healthy eating (skip the meringue and cream); cream for low carbers (skip the meringue)

Lemon Cheesecake

Apologies for the lack of metric quantities - it's an old recipe!

For the base:
1/2lb digestive biscuits
2oz butter

For the topping:
Large tin of condensed milk
1/2lb Philadelphia cream cheese (not low fat!)
Juice of a lemon

To make:

Crush the biscuits - either whizz in a food processor, or put them in a bag and bash with a rolling pin until evenly sized crumbs
Melt the butter in a medium-sized pan, and then mix the crumbs into the butter
Tip them into a springform/loose-bottomed cake tin (c. 8in in diameter) and press down to make a base.
Put it in the fridge or freezer to set.

To make the topping:

Put all the ingredients into a food processor or liquidiser (or a stick blender goblet) and blend till smooth.
When the biscuit base is cool and has set, tip the topping on top.
Chill till you need to serve.

I serve it with a Cadbury's Flake bashed up and sprinkled up on the top.

Or if I want something that looks a bit posher, some redcurrant but chocolate is nicer

Marmalade bread and butter pudding , lemon cheesecake or Eton mess as they are the quickest to make.

Anything I can buy from M&S ... definitely wouldn't get suckered into baking something from scratch!!!