Panic stations! Ideas for desserts to bring to family gathering

[TuTu]

DH just casually mentioned that we have been asked to bring the desserts to a family gathering at the weekend. Needs to be enough to feed 26 people !! And of course because it is for family, pride wont let me just buy ready made desserts.
Please help as I have never made any desserts before apart from fresh fruit salad!

Oh, do Eton mess. Bash a few large meringues into little pieces, then layer in big glass dish with sweetened greek yog/double cream and strawbs, rasps. Lovely and is supposed to look bish-bosh.

Citrus cheese cake is very very easy. You need 2oz melted butter to mix with a packet of ginger nut biscuits for the base. 2 tubs of mascapone and 4 oz of icing sugar mixed together with the juice and zest of 2 limes. Bung it on top of the chilled biscuit base and its done!

It won't feed all 26 but its a start! I'll take 10 mins to make and however long you need to chill in the fridge!

is the family gathering very far TuTu?

if not, how about home made ice cream/sorbet?

If it was me I would make a huge trifle, a pavlova, maybe a large bowl of strawberries that could be served with cream/ice-cream, some sort of choclatey pud, and that should do it. Or a crumble would be pretty easy?

A humungus trifle?

Another vote for Eton Mess.

Please keep the ideas coming as we are hosting my DM's 70th birthday bash on sunday and I need desserts. I was planning on hitting M&S but hope to be inspired by some ideas on here (I'm definitely doing the Eton Mess - that is right up my street!)

Thanks for all the replies..... calming down slightly now, as these seem like even i could have a go at. Will have to drive for about 3/4 hour to get there, but am worried that their might not be alot of fridge room for keeping the desserts cold. It is for a christening, so i will need to leave desserts of, but we wont be eating till maybe couple of hours later.

Have you seen this thread from earlier today? Might get some other ideas from there?

Message withdrawn

Here's the world's easiest pudding.

Get loads of grapes. Separate them all.

Get a tub of creme fraiche. Mix creme fraiche with large tablespoon of dark brown soft sugar. Mix in the grapes. Leave for an hour or so, and mix again before serving.

It gives the grapes a lovely caramelly sauce.

From an earlier thread:

My totally cheating milk and white chocolate trifle:

Buy a chocolate marble cake (if you can't buy this, buy a chocolate swiss roll instead)
Slice up and put in the bottom of a large trifle bowl/dish
Splash over some Baileys and/or some chocolate liqueur
Take two cartons or pots of ready made custard - melt a large bar of white chocolate and stir into one pot, melt a large bar of milk chocolate and stir into the the other
Pour white chocolate custard onto the sponge, then on top of that pour the milk chocolate custard
Whip some cream and smooth over the top of the custard.
Sprinkle crushed Flake/Snowflake on top.

eton mess (especially as is annoys fishface)

What about my old fashioned fresh fruit salad -does anyone eat this anymore? Its the one thing I know i can do!

Fresh fruit salad is safe IMO/E. Take fresh cream to go with it...mind you, these days it's an expensive dessert. Home made cheesecake is good, reasonable...what about........drum roll........Strawberry Tiramisu wonderful - and easy.

I did choc mousse when faced with similar problem. Pretty sure I found the receipe on here, too. Only thing to be careful of is the raw eggs, if any of the guests are pg

eton mess but it won't keep for too long once assembled

brownies and strawberries

cheesecake

trifle

fruit salad if you feel the need to pander to 'healthy' preferences, but if you have a selection of gooey puds it won't get eaten.

Is this thing this weekend? How long has DH been hanging on to this particular gem of information for ?

yes DH is such a laugh....he just threw it in that we were to bring the desserts on sunday. It was only when i asked that he said it was for 26 people! He is not in the least bit bothered, as he said just go to M&S, but this is where my pride kicks in and I want to prove i can do it (even though i havent a clue!)

wont the meringue dissolve in the yoghurt/cream if eton mess is stored for a few hours?

if you whip the cream and stick it in the fridge for a couple of hours before mixing then it should keep a bit longer. Otherwise, as it's a family do, maybe just take the bowl with the cream already in it and then just add the meringues etc when you get there or just before serving.

Cod - eton mess is piss easy and never fails so it gets my vote everytime. Everything else I make is too risky - for some reason I'm not consistent?! I can make a gorgeous light victoria sponge but try and replicate that the following week and it comes out pants!

solo, recipe please for your strawberry tiramisu. It sounds lovely.

Cupcakes?

Dull, yet keep well, no raw egg issues, and can be dressed up to look pretty - if it's a girl, do vanilla cupcakes with pink frosting, pile 'em on a plate and decorate with petals or ribbons or girly frilly stuff, if it's a boy, chocolate cupcakes with cream frosting, or ice the letters of his name on them and arrange on an ENORMOUS platter with plain iced ones surrounding.

You'll get better ideas than that on presentation, I'm sure, but at least you can do it a day before, and it looks like much more effort than it really is.

Alternatively, buy shop bought, two fingers to the family, and excuse yourself by saying "pudding doesn't travel well, and I wasn't sure the fridge capacity was up to it".

Like any other similar situation, most of the stress comes from ourselves - presumably you won't be strolling round the gathering judging the seasoning in the egg sandwiches? Your pud will be welcome, whatever it is, if you have a sane family, and if they're not sane, don't break a sweat for them

Hope you have a great time, you may just have the weather for it, too.

lemon millefeuille (sp?):
roll of frozen puff pastry, defrost according to packet, cut into three pieces, bake in oven as per packet.
tub of double cream, whip well, add severla big dollops of lemon curd (to taste)
on a large plate layer pastry slice, lemon cream, pastry, lemon cream, nicest pastry piece on top.
drizzle with icing sugar.
present to amazement and awe from guests.
slice with a breadknife (very carefully).

lemon tart here: www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/classiclemontart_86198.shtml