Impressive but easy prepare-in-advance-pudding...

[anonymousbird]

.. for a dinner party please?

I recently made Delia's Marsala Pears which were pretty much all in advance, looked wonderful in the bowl and were scrummy and they are my fall back, but want to extend my repertoire a bit with something else ...

I often make a damp lemon and almond cake because it tastes much better if wrapped and left to mature for a day or two. I serve with raspberries and creme fraiche.

Oo, that sounds interesting. Do you have a recipe per chance? Do you wrap in foil, clingfilm, baking paper??

I think it's Nigella - will dig out for you. If you want to make it look fancier you can use a ring mould and put the berries in the middle. But often I just make a rectangle and slice and serve.

Someone recently linked to this (recipe at bottom of page) which sounds lovely but I haven't had the chance to try it myself yet.

My best one was a ridiculously rich chocolate cake served with a homemade baileys and white chocolate ice cream (which I adapted from an Annabel Karmel recipe!), can try and find recipes if you like, if you're not in too much of a hurry

I always have a tub of Jamie's praline semi fredo in the freezer. It's so so amazing. Breeze to make, and obv as frozen is all in advance, and you can use it to gussy up anything hot you make, like brownies or tarts.

People are always quite impressed by it as well

Here it is. Only thing is - raw eggs, so not suitable for pregnant ladies or young children.

Any sort of pie - pumpkin pie, pecan pie, banoffee pie, apple tart/pie. Lemon tart?
Even if you buy the pastry people are impressed if it looks homemade.

A pretty trifle is always a winner and can be done the day before, St. Delia has good ones. Same with Tira misu, its nice with chocolate rather than coffee.

I have used this James Martin Lemon Posset with Shortbread recipe a few times when we have had guests.

Dead easy to mix up the posset and stick in the fridge early morning and the biscuits can be made the night before and kept in a tin and then warmed up again in the oven a bit just before serving to make them really fresh.

White chocolate parfait with amoretti biscuits and raspberry coulis wotnot is rather tasty. Very easy and can be done days/weeks in advance.

My go-to recipe for 'impressive but not as tricky as it looks' pudding is a Chocolate Liqueur Mousse. Per person you need....

1 egg, separated
1oz best dark chocolate you can get your hands on.
1 tablespoon liqueur of choice

Whisk the egg white until stiffish and gently fold in the egg yolk whisked up with melted chocolate and liqueur. Pour the result into little dishes (shot glasses are rather good!) and dress it up for the table. Amaretto liqueur plus Amaretti biscuits, for example

Tarte Tatin? With Apples or Plums?

Delia's chocolate bread and butter pudding. Delicious, and has to be made in advance. Delia INSISTS on it. You could make little individual ones.

I was going to suggest a chocolate mousse recipe like Cogito's. Always a big hit here. Very good vanilla icecream with a shot of expresso poured over it and cantuccini (sp?) biscuits is also showy and the biscuits store forever (in fact I think you can also even freeze the dough to avoid the temptation to eat them before hand )