Please suggest some Christmas dinner deserts for my extremely fussy family

[HappySonHappyMum]

I am cooking for nine - I have one celiac and one you won't eat cream. There is also a mixture of teenagers to 80 year olds. Most of the oldies won't touch anything 'fancy' as they are traditionalists - yet they don't like Christmas pudding. Does anyone have any suggestions?!

Trifle for the older ones
Ice cream station with lots of options.
Include meringues, ice cream, sprinkles, marshmallows, chocolates, sauces, fruits etc. Lots of variety for all.
You can make a gluten free chocolate cake.
Melt in the middle chocolate cakes or sponge puddings you can freeze then pop in the microwave.

Make a big tray of chocolate brownies or schools tray bake.

The only things I can think of is some sort of crumble with gluten free flour, icecream/ sorbet with fruit, jelly, rice pudding or some sort of mousse/ posset or crème brûlée if the cream hater doesn’t mind that sort of thing.

This sticky toffee pudding glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk/2018/10/23/gluten-free-sticky-toffee-pudding-recipe-low-fodmap-dairy-free/

Crumble or trifle for the oldies. Gluten free brownies (heated up with ice cream/cream).

We are having baked cheesecake and I’m making several different toppings as everyone’s fussy.

Have a look at Delia’s Christmas Dried fruit compote. It’s delish, plus you can make well ahead. V nice for breakfast, too.

We're having a white chocolate and raspberry cheesecake for the adultshttps://www.janespatisserie.com/2018/02/15/white-chocolate-raspberry-cheesecake/
(this is a foolproof recipe) , and gluten free chocolate yule log with ice cream for the younger family/coeliacs. Becky Excell is a whizz for gluten free recipes, never had one turn out bad.
https://glutenfreecuppatea.co.uk/2021/12/19/mini-christmas-colin-the-caterpillar-yule-logs-recipe/

Boiled orange chocolate cake.
It's a Nigella one, no gluten, no dairy.
Contains a boiled orange (or two, or boiled tangerines, whatever you have), pulped.
Sugar
Eggs
Ground almonds
Baking powder and baking soda.

It's a fabulous, dark, moist, classy-looking cake that keeps really well (you could make it two days ahead and no one would be any the wiser).

ETA, it is also dead easy to make: combine all the ingredients, pour into lined tin, bake. Just make sure it doesn't burn.

Mary Berry's gluten free chocolate roulade is good and you can decorate it like a chocolate yule log. If some people won't eat cream but are not allergic to dairy you can make a fudge filling instead of her berries and whipped cream, by mixing melted dark chocolate with condensed milk.

For the oldies, you could make an apple crumble or sticky toffee pudding both served with custard or ice cream. The crumble could be gluten free too, if you make the topping with ground almonds and gluten free flour and oats, blended with sugar and butter.

I tried to make that once and the pith from the orange made the whole cake so bitter it was inedible. If I made it again, I'd use tangerines or clementines with very thin peel, not real oranges.

Polenta cake served with fruit compote (cream served separately).

Wine jelly with grapes and pomegranate seeds.

Caramelised orange slices and poached pears.

Pear belle Hélène but made with Swedish Glacé instead of ice cream

Apple pie. You can get gluten free pastry from the supermarket.

Could you do a dessert sharing board? Different Chocolates and fruit with some small meringues, mince pies etc. you could buy a few gluten free bits.

I've also made the boiled orange cake (Nigella has taken it from Claudia Roden) and it was awful. Unbelievably bitter.

DH kept eating it in a kind of confused and appalled way saying 'it's horrible but it's cake???!!!'

It's a classic recipe but clearly has potential to go badly wrong.

I was going to say nigella clemantine cake - I have made it for celiac guests but also for a dessert for a birthday as it is delicious (it is more like dessert than cake) I think it may be different from the one already mentioned as it has no chocolate or orange in it.

I made that today! Make it every year and freeze it. Agree, fudge filling for cream- free person.

I'd go sticky toffee pudding. The cream hater can have with custard or ice cream. I reckon it would survive being made with gluten free flour. Jamie Oliver's is excellent, but it takes about twice as long to cook as the recipe says and you have to be ready to cover it up with tin foil so the top doesn't burn.

Morrisons best range have a chocolate pudding gluten free - we had it for our pre Christmas gathering, heated up lovely and really tasty

I don't know if this is a helpful remark (and you may be someone who loves baking and making dessert dishes!), but desserts are good things for guests to bring as they don't usually require heating up. If I was hosting, I'd be asking everyone to bring something, and that would have dessert covered. Bought desserts would be fine, obviously.

Buy a nice GF Christmas pudding- I wouldn't risk cooking for an actual celiac myself!
Christmas pudding alternative for everyone else. Glorified spotted dick or syrup sponge or sticky toffee pudding. Serve with ice cream or custard as well as cream.
Or apple pie. Apparently you can get GF pastry from jus roll.

Would they eat chocolate pudding? I have an amazing chocolate 'suprise ' pudding I make that is like a sponge thst makes its own chocolate sauce as it cooks. Really easy and rich.

Polenta cake. Chestnut chocolate cake (there are various recipes).

My family expect a pavlova among other desserts. Make a separate one for the dairy free person and top with whipped Elmlee cream. I usually then top with frozen raspberries and tinned peaches, and either toasted flaked almonds or crumbled flaked chocolate. Everyone loves a pavlova.

I've never had that issue - but it does say to use thing-skinned oranges, so I wouldn't use the navels that you use for marmalade. I made it the other day, took half to one event and half to another and was left with two small slices.

The coeliac I'd actually made it for took two extra slices home.

I always make a Baileys bread and butter pudding. The oldies might like that?

Apparently you can get GF pastry from jus roll.

You can, but cardboard is cheaper and tastes much the same.

https://www.janespatisserie.com/2020/08/15/white-chocolate-raspberry-tart/

this is really easy and usually goes down well (you can easily use gluten free biscuits for the base).
I’ve also made it with dark chocolate and a marmalade swirl (it’s especially good with a little bit of vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and orange zest added to the chocolate mix). You need to warm the marmalade slightly and add a drop of orange juice to get the right consistency to swirl.
I’ve also done milk chocolate with a pistachio crème swirl (you need a decent 45%ish chocolate or it’s too sweet). It would also work with salted caramel sauce.

I’d also offer a festive fruit salad too (https://pinchofnom.com/recipes/festive-fruit-salad/)