I am going to a desert exchange for my mom's group and I need the best desert I can make. I have no clue what to make. I never make deserts and am brain dead thinking about this. I don't have any treasured recipes. It needs to serve 14. Help. Thanks so much.
By mindy from Terrebonne, OR
I would make something called "Strawberry Delight".
1 round angel food cake
2 ( 16 oz. ) packs frozen strawberries
Cream together:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 can condensed milk
1 large cool whip
Layer cake, strawberries and topping in this order. Do at least 2 layers. Use a large punch bowl, or a disposable foil pan/casserole dish, since it will be for a dessert exchange. I have made this many times and always get rave reviews. People always ask for the recipe. Good luck. Hope this helps.
I would suggest Igloos (I have the recipe posted in today's list). They are so easy to make - individual desserts which make them simple to serve.
Ingredients:
1 Swiss roll
1 can peach or pear halves
jam
egg whites
sugar
Directions:
Cut 1 slice of Swiss roll per person and lay out on a baking tray. I use baking parchment but you can grease tray if you wish. Put 1 tsp jam. on each piece of roll. Place a half of a peach or pear on top of each slice, rounded side up.
Beat the egg whites till they are stiff and add a little caster sugar to taste. Spoon the egg whites over each slice, ensuring they are sealed to the edges. Bake in a slow oven as you would meringue. If time is short, place them under the grill.
Serve with cream or ice cream.
Editor's Note: For those of you who may not be familiar with Swiss Rolls, here is a wikipedia entry about it.
en.wikipedia.org/
Try bar cookies, they are usually so easy, just look online for bar cookie recipes, try allrecipes.com. I love butterscotch rice krispy treats and they are so easy. Melt a cup of peanut butter with a bag of butterscotch chips till melted. Pour over 6 cups rice krispies and press into buttered 9x13 glass pan let cool. Cut into squares.
This is simple as anything but are so darn good. If you want to make a cake, use a cake mix but jazz it up. Add pudding mixes to complement flavor, or baking chips, nuts, fruit, juices. I always change the water for the cake mix to juice or milk. In a carrot cake or spice cake change the oil for applesauce. Carrot cake change the water for pineapple juice and add a smashed up little can of carrots. Strawberry cake, cut up your strawberries and add sugar and let make juice then use that juice in the cake and some of the strawberries also. Then I use a cream cheese frosting and add a little juice to it also. Try Paula Deens gooey butter cake, easy peasy. I love the pumpkin variation of it.
Cake
1 (18.25-ounce) box yellow cake mix
1 egg
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
--Filling
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 13x9x2-inch baking pan. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine cake mix, egg, and butter and mix well. Pat into the bottom of prepared pan and set aside. Still using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese until smooth; add eggs and vanilla. Dump in confectioners' sugar and beat well. Reduce speed of mixer and slowly pour in butter. Mix well.
Pour filling onto cake mixture and spread evenly. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes. Don't be afraid to make a judgment call on the cooking time, because oven temperatures can vary. You want the center to be a little gooey, so don't bake it past that point!
Remove from oven and allow to cool completely. Cut into squares.
Pumpkin Gooey: For this variation you can use either a yellow or spice cake mix.
Double Chocolate - use a devil's food or chocolate fudge cake mix, and add 4 Tbs cocoa powder to the topping. Can add a cup of chopped nuts to the cream cheese filling, if desired.
Pineapple Gooey: Add a 20-ounce can of drained crushed pineapple and an extra egg to the cream cheese filling. Proceed as directed above.
Lemon Gooey: Use a lemon cake mix in place of the yellow cake. Add the juice (approximately 1/4 cup) and zest of 2 lemons to the cream cheese filling. Proceed: as directed above.
Carrot Cake Gooey: Use a spice cake mix, and add 1 cup chopped nuts and 1 1/2 cup finely grated carrots to the cream cheese filling. Proceed as directed above.
Peanut Butter Gooey: Use a chocolate cake mix. Add 1 cup creamy peanut butter and an extra egg to cream cheese filling. You can sprinkle the top of batter with 1 cup chopped peanuts if you like. Proceed as directed above.
Chocolate Chip Gooey: Use either yellow or chocolate cake mix. Sprinkle 1 cup chocolate chips and 1 cup chopped nuts on top of filling. Proceed as directed above.
Banana Gooey: Use a yellow cake mix. Prepare cream cheese filling as directed, beating in 2 ripe bananas and an extra egg. Proceed as directed above.
Nutty Gooey: Use a yellow cake mix, and add 1 cup chopped nuts to the cake mixture. Proceed as directed above.
Elvis Gooey: Use a yellow cake mix. Prepare cream cheese filling as directed, beating in 1/2 cup peanut butter, a ripe banana and an extra egg. Proceed as directed above.
Chippy Gooey: Stir 1 cup white chocolate chips, peanut butter chocolate chips, butterscotch morsels, Heath Almond Toffee Bits or Heath Milk Chocolate Toffee Bits into filling. Proceed as directed above.
A really easy dessert which looks fantastic - take one packet of choc chip cookies and one packet of gingernuts. Whip some double cream in a bowl and set aside. Now briefly dip alternate choc chip and gingers in a saucer of sherry (or ginger beer if T-total), sandwich together with half of the cream and stand upright to form a circle on your dish. Spread the rest of the cream over your biscuit ring and sprinkle with grated chocolate. Chill in fridge for a couple of hours before serving. Yum!
The one dessert that has never failed me is the chocolate cake recipe on the side of the Hershey's cocoa box. I usually make a cream cheese frosting with it because the frosting recipe also on the box is a bit too much for me.
Try searching at allrecipes.com too - lots of good ideas there and users can review the recipes. The reviews are very helpful.
If you want something painfully simple but tasty, mix a jar of marshmallow fluff with an 8 oz. package of cream cheese (room temperature) until smooth. Serve with fresh fruit for dipping; strawberries and bananas work best.
Now is a great time to pick up flats of fresh raspberries quite inexpensively. I purchase as many as I can at a time, rinse well, drain really well and then freeze in small individual containers. Take as many raspberries as desired from the freezer the night before you want to use. They will now be bathed in their own lovely syrup :-)
Place about three dozen Nilla wafers in the bottom of an 8 x 8 baking dish. Now all you have to do is pour the raspberries and their syrup over the cookies just before serving ;-)
When you say exchange I think you mean trading and not sitting and sharing together? If that's the case just place the berry containers on the cookies with a cute note of instructions :-)
I serve this dessert a lot and everyone loves it and it's so darn simple :-)
My boss made this thing called a brownie truffle. She brought it in a trifle dish and it was really pretty. She baked brownie and cut it up and layered it in the bottom, then she poured chocolate pudding on it then put cool whip on. Then started again layering brownie, pudding and cool whip until the top. It was delicious. I have also made a strawberry pudding. This is just like a banana pudding only with strawberries instead.
I make something don't no what you would call it I take a angel food cake and slice it 3 times . Mix up a vanilla small pudding. Take crushed pineapple, cherries chopped,coconut, cool whip, pecans, and layer it or pull in pieces and put in 9x13 pan an put stuff on top.
