Make-Ahead Desserts for Easy Entertaining

For easy entertaining I have pulled a few desserts from the archives that you might like to try over the holiday season. This is a busy time of year for many and you can make each dessert a few days ahead, leaving you with plenty of time to attend to your guests and other preparations. And, if you haven’t made your christmas pudding yet, I have included a last-minute christmas pudding recipe.

Chocolate desserts are always popular and you can make this Squidgy Chocolate Torte two days ahead and keep covered and refrigerated until needed. Decorate with strawberries a few hours before serving. When cutting this dessert for serving, it’s a good idea to run the blade of a knife under warm water and carefully wipe away the excess water with some paper towel. The warm blade should glide through the chocolate torte, leaving you with clean and evenly cut slices.
Christmas Ice Cream Pudding is a delicious way of using left-over christmas pudding and you can make this very easy frozen dessert two or three days ahead. You can make your own vanilla ice cream or make it really easy and buy a good quality ice cream instead. Make individual servings using small pudding moulds or one large family serving.

Since I came across spherical moulds some years back I love using them for my Christmas Puddings. You can make this Last-minute Christmas Pudding a week in advance or even the day before. Store the christmas pudding in the refrigerator until needed. You can also use a regular 600ml pudding bowl with the same recipe.

If you love chocolate and dates you might like to try this ultra rich Chocolate Date Cake with Tahini and White Chocolate, you can make this dessert cake a day or two ahead of time. You can serve the tahini and white chocolate topping as a warm pouring sauce rather than cooling and spreading on top of the cake. If using the topping as a sauce, make before serving, which will only take a few minutes.

Make these Mini Pavlovas a week ahead and store in an airtight container (between sheets of greaseproof paper) and keep refrigerated. Top the pavlova’s with fresh cream and fruit of your choice an hour or two before serving.