Ideas needed for a ott show stopper dessert, the flashier the better

[Lardlizard]

So far the best think I can find is this swan cake
Or maybe swan

Here

Swanpav

looks good

Paris Brest au chocolat, have a look at the Meilleur du Chef website for recipe and simple instructions of the method.

It's got to be a croquembouche.

www.google.ae/amp/s/www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/croquembouche/amp

I was going to suggest croquembouche although I hate profiteroles...

Incidently I've just learnt thats how you spell it not "croque en bouche" which would be something to do with chickens and mouths i think?

Wrong again, it would mean bit mouth... anyway, sorry for derailing!

The profiteroles doesn’t look good but it’s not for that many !

More like 6-8

Something with gold leaf?

What event is it for?

You can make a croquembouche any size. I think the swans are very impressive but rather kitsch in the same way eg ice sculptures are. So it depends what you mean by OTT. A tiered pudding of any kind, or eg île flottante in a beautiful trifle dish with spun sugar or something like that, could be OTT but less comically so.

Baked Alaska. Pretty impressive pulling ice cream out of the oven

Less is often more:

In huge round trendy gin glasses:

A ball of strawberry sorbet, pale pink and white meringue rosettes, a scattering of fresh strawberries and raspberries, a ball of the finest vanilla ice-cream - drizzled over with pomegranate liquer, then add a ball or two of spun sugar.

Very little cooking or baking and all you have to do is throw together ready made ingredients (except the spun sugar) and possibly the meringue! It is very pretty.

Thanks for the ideas
It’s just for a dinner at mine with friend once the lockdown part two is over
So I think we need a full on ott celebration
And I want to do something that is pretty ridiculous

I’m going to need to goggle
Some of your ideas

By spun sugar are you talking candy floss ?

No candy floss is finer and you need a machine. This is pale caramel in colour and like strands of caramel glass. You melt sugar and water and let it caramelized slightly and then with a fork whoosh it in strands over the end of something like a rolling pin and whilst slightly warm gently shape it into a pretty ball.

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chocolate-recipes/chocolate-celebration-cake/

Made this for DP birthday, it was gorgeous and totally OTT with the sparklers!

I've only made spun sugar once and it looked incredible when I put dessert in fridge. When I got it out all the strands had gone soggy and collapsed and looked ridiculous. It wasn't worth having to clean the damn pan!

We had a croquembouche with sparklers in the side at our wedding and they are impressive.

Chocolate fountains can be fun with fruit kebabs, marshmellows etc

Or a pancake stack cake with pancake layers, chocolate layers and fruit layers

Or a pavola tower like this:
www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/meringue/jewelled-pavlova-tower

www.burchandpurchese.com/media/100426/bombe-alaska-with-prices.pdf

Sorry that's just an advert but flambé ice cream is impressive

Spun sugar looks wonderful and is fun to do but it HATES moisture so no wonder it collapsed in the fridge in top of a dessert! You’d really need to do it just before you were serving unless you’ve got somewhere very dry to keep it for no more than an hour or two - a kitchen which normally has high humidity is a nightmare. Personally I’d say it’s one for professional kitchens. It’s not that hard to do it - but you really have to do it there and then.

The swan pavlova looks a bloody nightmare too. Of course meringue stores really well but can you imagine how fragile that neck will be? And if the neck breaks, what are you left with?! Something not very spectacular!!

I’d actually go for something easy that you can make look super pretty. My favourite standby is lemon posset (loads of recipes online) made in a beautiful tall stemmed wine glass. I’ve got some antique etched glasses (charity shop find) which look amazing. When ready to serve, top with a few berries (think thinly sliced strawberries, or whatever is in season) some toasted almond slivers and maybe a little gold leaf.

Totally stealing that pavlova tower next time I’m doing dinner for 50 🙃