Desserts for a crowd!

May 25, 2015 2:09 AM

I am in charge of making dessert for an informal lunch for 50-60 people this weekend. I'm looking for delicious dessert recipes that are ideally not too labor-intensive. I am abroad and don't have access to boxed cake mixes, but otherwise have most normal ingredients (except peanut butter and blueberries). If it's something I can make the day before, even better! Thanks for your recipes.
posted by maca to Food & Drink (13 answers total)

I like to bake, but for that quantity I'd be looking at cookies (a few different kinds if I had the time), brownies, cupcakes (but plan on time to frost them), chocolate-dipped dried fruit, or candied fruit/peel, which can also be chocolate dipped.
posted by cocoagirl at 2:54 AM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

Is something like banana pudding an option? Any vanilla - type cookie works for the base layer. Any vanilla pudding works for the custard. Just be sure to fully submerge the banana slices. (I usually dump the banana slices into the pudding and mix up instead of layering.
posted by mightshould at 3:44 AM on May 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

My go-to dessert for large groups is Rote Grütze aka Rødgrød. It's a Scandinavian an Northern German dessert made from berries and often served with vanilla sauce or (whipped) cream.

I usually use a frozen berry mix (strawberries, raspberries, red and black currants, blackberries) and sometimes add sour cherries, and depending on where you are, you might even be able to find something like this in a supermarket which makes the Rote Grütze even easier to make.

Try this recipe (use juice instead of wine), or this one, or this one and make some plain vanilla sauce instead of the cream and yoghurt.

One batch usually takes me about 10 minutes to make if I use frozen fruit, and you could make enough for 50 to 60 people in an hour, I think. Guten Appetit!
posted by amf at 3:47 AM on May 25, 2015 [2 favorites]

Once I was in a similar situation, I made profiteroles They look really fancy and complicated, but are actually quite easy to make. Has to be same day, though.

Flourless chocolate cakes tend to improve with some rest - maybe even more than a day. I'd serve that with a lot of fresh fruit - they are really heavy!
posted by mumimor at 3:48 AM on May 25, 2015 [1 favorite]

My go-to for large groups is meringue nests with berries and cream. You can buy the nests pre-made and then you just have to whip the cream, squirt it into them, and drizzle berries on top. They look spectacular for very little effort. If you want to serve them as finger food, though, you can't do it more than an hour in advance, or the cream will make the nests too soggy.
posted by lollusc at 3:55 AM on May 25, 2015

You could make an easy banoffee pie in large containers (or individual servings in muffin cases).

I tend to mix rice krispie-style cereal with syrup & butter until it's gooey (not sure about exact measurements - I tend to eyeball), spread that in the bottom of a pan/into muffin cases, top with a layer of pre-made dulce de leche, add sliced bananas and cover with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
posted by terretu at 6:06 AM on May 25, 2015

Best answer: For large numbers like this, I think you'd be best off making a huge tray of something that can be portioned out into bars.

Millionaire's Shortbread
Mascarpone Brownies

Both of those have visual appeal when sliced and are really really yummy.

p.s. If you don't have mascarpone, I've made those brownies several times with cream cheese, ricotta, or goat cheese before and the recipe handles it fine.
posted by phunniemee at 6:25 AM on May 25, 2015 [4 favorites]

Eton Mess, trifle or cranachan. These are all a snap to assemble, and you can go store-bought with a lot of things:

1. Eton mess is just sliced strawberries and crushed meringue cookies in whipped cream. You could dole that out into little dishes.

2. Trifle is just a big parfait of cut-up cake, pudding, and berries. Sometimes spiked with a little booze. You could make individual portions or just one big bowl.

3. Cranachan is a parfait of whipped cream and yogurt, berries, and toasted oatmeal; you could swap out the oatmeal for chopped nuts, crumbled-up cookie, or a combination of all of them. This would be good in little dishes.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:54 AM on May 25, 2015 [3 favorites]

Ooh! Pots de creme! That's basically a super-thick chocolate pudding - think, like, halfway in consistency between a slab of fudge and pudding. And it's definitely a do--ahead thing, and all you do to mix it up is dump things into a blender, mix it and pour it into little cups.

Or panda cotta! That's milk, unflavored gelatin and whatever flavoring you want. That's also make-ahead, and you can decide to serve it out of little cups or unfold it onto little plates. Either way make sure you have some kind of sauce to drizzle on top.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:42 AM on May 25, 2015

I love panda cotta, off to experiment with vanilla and liquorice now, thanks!
Want to second eton mess, add pomengranate seeds for crunch and sophistication. I am going to do a large pavlova tomorrow to feed about fifteen. Serve the cream and fruit separate and it won't get soft.
posted by Iteki at 9:54 AM on May 25, 2015

How fancy?

Can you make jello with some bits of real fruit? Arrange it with some of the other stuff you can make in large batches (chocolate pudding, ice cream, etc.) and it should make for a pleasant dessert that's simple enough to "make".
posted by kschang at 4:21 PM on May 25, 2015

Clarifying that one of my recommendations was panna cotta, as opposed to PANDA cotta (damn you autocorrect).
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:06 PM on May 25, 2015

kalessin: The recipe was semi-famously presented by Heston Blumenthal yt , but there are other videos as useful.

There was a MeFi FFP about this last year.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 4:17 AM on May 27, 2015