Christmas dessert recipes please?

My family are doing Christmas lunch on Dec 1st because it's the only time most of us can be together. It's a barbecue style lunch and I have been asked to do dessert. I am already taking a mini tree made from a painted crafted phone book which I am going to put toothpicks into and decorate with edible stars and things, but since my new boyfriend is also coming, as a couple we want to take a second more substantial dessert that can be dished up as an event of it's own as opposed to cookies on a plate or treats in the corner hanging on a tree.

There will be 8 adults and 5-6 children at the lunch and the dessert has to survive travelling an hour or so in a hot climate. I want to do something just a little bit fancy (but kid friendly) but that is not overly expensive or stressful, but leaves a little bit of room for my involuntary flare for creativity without being over the top on the time consumption factor. Bit of a tall order huh.

I have been looking online and have a few ideas but nothing that stands out or fits perfectly. Lots of the online recipes are boozy adult ones or contain lots of cream or icecream or other frozen substances which I suppose is reasonable for an Australian Christmas but makes for a messy job trying to transport food in the heat. Anyone got any suggestions or concepts to get me started?

one word !!! cake!!!!

nothing else to say

Hahaha thanks Adam. I should have known I left that wide open for you. :-D

I have been looking at cake as a starting point in some cases. What I need is the ideas part of the fancyness factor that gets me started for colours and textures and shapes and ingredients....

I found a few places where a similar concept repeats itself, where you take chocolate cookies and sandwich them together with cream in a log shape then cover the whole thing in cream. I guess the cookies must go soft into the fridge and create a whole other thing. I'd have to go to the party early to assemble it rather than try to transport it without it falling apart I think, but at least it's simple and relatively cheap but nice and differentish.

It's still not my OH MY GOODNESS THATS DEFINITELY WHAT IM DOING idea though.

But I guess it's there if I get desperate.

I just have no energy lately.

But for reasons I won't get into to this Christmas is an especially big deal so I don't want to just give up on the specialness either.

More suggestions welcome.

Jb, if you and May want to join my family here in Aus, I'll make sure there is cake.

Punch Bowl Cake
Made a 9 x 13 cake mix, any flavor, I generally use white or yellow.
In a large punch bowl, layer 1/2 of the cake in bite size pieces.
Next layer 1 can Vanilla Pudding
Next, layer 1 can of Cherry Pie Filling,
Next layer, I can drained crushed pineapple
Repeat layers of cake, pudding, cherry pie filling, and drained crushed pineapples.
Top with 1 tub of cool whip, garnish with crushed walnuts. Feeds an army.

We always had a birthday cake for Jesus when the children were home and back then we never (bite your tongue) had cake from a box. The flour was always special cake flour. To make cake flour now, be sure to start with soft white flour that isn't hard with a high protein content for bread. You can check it by looking on the content list under protein, it should read less than 4 grams. For every cup in the recipe, replace 2 TBS flour with 2 TBS cornstarch and sift it 5 times.

If I can make out the faded ink of my old recipe, here is the cake. A white one to represent the purity of Christ.

Cream: 3/4 cup Butter and 2 cups sugar until light.

Sift together: 3/4 tsp salt, 3 1/2 cups cake flour, 5 tsp baking powder,

Mix: 1 1/2 cups water, 1 1/2 teas. vanilla

Add wet and dry ingredients alternately to creamed mixture.

Fold in 5 fluffy beaten egg white.

Bake in 3 9" cake pans.

Frost with a recipe for boiled frosting. You can add coconut flakes to frosting.

Try pudding..it is a good option..easy to prepare also..Visit Givoli.com-Kerala Recipes,Pachakam,Samayal,Tamil Cooking,Karnataka Cuisine,Taminadu Recipe,Kannada Cuisine you can find diffrent types of delicious recipes..

Thanks you guys. I guess I didn't get on here to see the new suggestions on time. In the end my bf said he would provide the other half of dessert and he bought a blackforrest cake from the cheesecake shop. We joked at the time about carrot cake and how it wasn't "real cake" and when we got to the party my sister in law had bought a carrot cake, also from the cheesecake shop, so that we could kill two birds with one stone and sing happy birthday to my brother who's birthday would be a few days later. So there was pleeenty of cake.

I guess actual Christmas day is still coming so the recipes may come in handy for dos with my bfs family.

gimmie gimmie gimimi!@!!!