Plum pudding with hard sauce! Trifle (mine includes macaroons or amaretto cookies soaked with sherry, whipped cream, custard, raspberry jam, slivered almonds). Parfairs with vanilla ice cream, Creme de menthe , chocolate sauce and crushed peppermint..

I’ve settled on angel food cake with whipped cream and sugared berries for this year, but also considered an Oreo cheesecake, traditional apple pie, and caramel monkey bread. A chocolate twist for many applications could be a Nutella sauce! Mmmm...Nutella....

Summer, do you have the recipe for that? It sure strikes my fancy!

For whatever reason, I'm a total failure at trifles. And I've tried. Even have a lovely trifle bowl...which is now filled with decorations!

The jelly roll thing is beautiful, but too fussy when I have so much other prepping to do.

Red Velvet Cake

One of the desserts will be a carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It is in my freezer ready to be thawed and the icing put on.

We also will have a few pies and possibly cookies.

Sue

Summer, I too would like the eclair cake recipe. Also Marily Sue, your carrot cake. (I have a sheet cake recipe but it just okay.)

I don't have a go-to dessert for Christmas, but this year I'm making a Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing ... and in between the two layers of Carrot Cake will be a Cheesecake. Trust me, it's an incredible combination.

Mrs Pete, I have had cake with cheese cake in the middle and it is outrageously delish!

I kind of save the carrot cake for easter as somehow that seems more appropriate...bunnies and all.

Traditional in our family? A huge coconut cake.

.

This year? Mom will tolerate (and boy am I being generous with that. She asked if she could stay in bed, half seriously.) us being there for breakfast so she can see all the kids, grandchildren. After, the boy and I will head home and grill steaks; so it'll be leftover cookies and candies for dessert. I've made so much for events and I didn't even take it all to them. Last one was last night. We brought home some of the cookies and peppermint bark. He's enjoying it, and I can't have it so it should suffice.

WHAT, no suet pudding! Or as it was called at my house growing up, Johnny Bull. An old English holiday dessert. It was steamed in a cheesecloth bag and served with a hard sauce flavored with lemon. I haven't made it in years. But thoughts of it have me wishing I could this year. Instead, I will be happy with the huge variety of cookies and nut and fruit breads from my daughters kitchen. Good enough!

Here is a chocolate eclair cake recipe -- don't know if it's Summers or not, but it looks like it. It's easy and well liked:

RITA'S NO BAKE ECLAIR CAKE

16 ounces graham crakcers

2 small boxes instant vanilla pudding

3 1/2 c. milk

8 ounces Cool Whip

Chocolate Frosting:

3 T. cocoa

3 T. butter, softened

3 T. milk

1 1/2 c. powdered sugar

Mix pudding and milk in a bowl. Blend together for about 2 minutes, then fold in the Cool Whip. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with non-stick spray. Place a layer of whole graham crackers on the bottom, then top with 1/2 of the pudding mixture. Cover the pudding with another layer of graham crackers, top with remaining pudding and another layer of graham crackers. Chill overnight or for at least 8 hours.

Mix cocoa, butter and milk until smooth. Add more powdered sugar if you like the frosting al title sticker. If it's too thick, just add a little more milk. Spread on top of cake.

I'm trying a red velvet layer cake with cream cheese frosting this year.

My caterer friend brought THIS cider-gingerbread bundt cake to my cocktail party this past weekend. OMG.

Actually, she brought it to me, personally....a gift. I did. not. share.

Red velvet cake was a tradition in our family for years, but I started my own: A Yule log. You can drag a fork across the frosting so it looks sort of log-ish and put Rolos inside of giant marshmallows (sprinkled with cocoa powder) to look like mushrooms. I also stick live rosemary into the cake and drop cranberries around it to make it look like a tree.

Simple Texas Sheet Cake is an easy chocolate cake that will serve 16 if cut in nice size squares. Can serve with some fresh strawberries if desired to cut all the sweetness. I have my tried and true recipe but you can easily find one online.

I have had the chocolate Éclair and it is delicious, easy, no bake, can be made a day or 2 before. Perfect.

I'm making a yule log. They're really much easier than they look. But you would need two to serve 16. A cheesecake would serve 16 and they are really easy to make, too. A strawberry or raspberry topping would make it festive. If you have a Costco near you, they have something called a Tuxedo Cake. I've had it at several different parties where people don't like to bake and it is really delicious.

Always pecan pie with bourbon whip cream, and a cheesecake for Christmas Day. Christmas Eve is decorated sugar cookies and chocolate fudge with black walnuts.

It is pretty hard to fail at a trifle :-) It is just layering the different ingredients and you do not need to be precise with the appearance. I use a purchased pound cake for simplicity (or lady fingers, amaretto cookies, etc.) so the only thing that requires much effort is the custard. And I use the Bird's powdered custard for that as well (a British staple) although you can easily make your own.

English trifle is really a very easy and quite elegant dessert. And delicious!!

ilovecomputers, it would be great to see a pic of your yule log creation! Sounds wonderful.

Outside Playing, if you'd like to share your T&T sheet cake, I'd appreciate it.

We are having two desserts--a bakery decorated birthday cake for our 11 year old as Christmas is his birthday, and then we always have something else too. This year we will be 10, so two banana cream pies. We frequently have had cheesecake pie, and meringue nests with lemon sauce, whipped cream and raspberry sauce. A couple of years ago, we tried more down home desserts with a chocolate pie and a banana cream pie and were surprised how popular the banana cream pie was. So two of them this year.

This probably isn't the direction you're heading, but I've made a frozen pumpkin jelly roll many times that was really well received. It's a pumpkin spice cake filled with vanilla ice cream, then frozen. It's great because you can do it a few days ahead and keep it in the freezer. I'd think there are similar recipes for a chocolate version, too. This isn't my recipe, as mine was cut from a magazine a million years ago, but it's very close. They suggest Butter Pecan ice cream instead of vanilla, which would also be good.

pumpkin-ice-cream-roll

We don't have any set menu for Christmas, but whatever it is is usually pretty heavy/rich, so for dessert when I was growing up we always had peppermint stick ice cream molded in the shape of Christmas trees.

I always make a roasted pear trifle with ladyfingers soaked in brandy and amaretto. Birds custard, raspberry jam, and whipped cream. Yum! This year i have added a chocolate cheesecake. I have it in the freezer already

We've had traditional English trifle, fruit cake, and plum pudding over the years. We're now down to a plum pudding for our big Christmas dinner (I order mine from Mother Sperry online - Mother makes one heck of a plum pudding and is a hoot!). For our lobster stew dinner (usually held on Christmas Eve), I need a quick, easy dessert as we're always rushing off to church and I'm exhausted from the preparations.

For the past several years, I've bought those frozen min-cream puffs one can find in the freezer case at any large grocery. They have real whipped cream in them. I take out the number I need, when we sit down for dinner and they thaw to the right "stiffness" but still chilled, by the time for dessert.

On each plate, I put a couple of scoops of Hagan Das raspberry sorbet. Then on the side, each person gets 3 min-cream puffs, dusted with powdered sugar. Then a scoop of fresh red raspberries next to the sorbet. I pass a hot chocolate sauce and also a bowl of lemon curd (I buy Stonewall Kitchen's lemon curd - it's as good as homemade and just fabulous). People can add that to the sorbet as they wish.

Everyone loves these things, they are very quick and easy to assemble and utterly delicious, to say nothing of the colors being quite festive. It's an easy thing with a crowd.

This is the Carrot Cake recipe I made and froze. It is a Taste of Home recipe.

TOTAL TIME: Prep: 15 min. Bake: 50 min.
YIELD:12 servings

Ingredients

• 1-1/3 cups vegetable oil
• 4 eggs
• 1-1/2 cups sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 2-1/2 cups finely shredded carrots
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• CREAM CHEESE ICING:
• 1 package (3 ounces) cream cheese, softened
• 3 cups confectioners' sugar
• Dash salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

• 1.
  In
  a large mixing bowl, combine oil, eggs and sugar. Combine flour, baking
  powder, soda and cinnamon; add to mixing bowl. Beat well. Stir in
  carrots and nuts. Pour into a greased 13-in. x 9-in. baking pan. Bake at
  350° for about 50 minutes or until cake tests done. For frosting, beat
  cream cheese and sugar in a medium mixing bowl. Gradually add salt,
  vanilla and milk, beating until smooth and spreadable. Add more milk if
  needed to thin frosting. Spread on cooled cake.
  Yield: 12 servings.
• Sue

Ina Garten’s orange bundt cake with choc chips/chunks and ganache is one of my favorites. I had it at a friend’s house one Christmas and have made it several times since. I think the next time I make it, I’ll double the ganache even if I don’t put it all on the cake to begin with. I love ganache.

https://leitesculinaria.com/3076/recipes-barefoot-contessa-orange-chocolate-chunk-cake.html

You’d probably need 2 of these for that many people if you serve generous slices.

Here is the recipe for Eclair Cake. At the bottom, I've included changes I have made, when I make it, but really aren't necessary.

ECLAIR DOUGH BASE

1 cup water

½ cup butter

1 cup flour

1 tsp sugar

4 eggs

½ tsp vanilla

FILLING

`1(3.4 oz) box instant french vanilla pudding

2 cups milk 6 oz cool whip, thawed, about ¾ of an 8 oz container

TOPPING

2 oz cool whip, thawed, remaining cool whip from 8 oz container

Instructions

For base

Boil water and butter together in a medium saucepan on stove. Then take it off the heat and add the flour and sugar and mix with hand mixer. Add and beat in eggs one at a time. Add in vanilla.

Spread in a lightly greased 9x13 or a jellyroll pan, push into corners and up the sides.

Bake at 400 degrees F for 25 minutes, the cake will not be smooth or uniform in appearance. Let cool completely.

Whisk instant pudding and milk together. Fold in cool whip. Spread over cooled crust.

Spread layer of cool whip on top. Drizzle chocolate syrup over top.

CHOCOLATE SYRUP

3/4 cup milk

1/4 cup butter at room temperature

Pinch of salt

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

In a 1-quart saucepan over medium high heat, combine milk,
butter, and salt and bring it to a boil. Combine the sugar and cocoa
powder and stir to get rid of any lumps, then add to the pan and
continue to stir with a whisk until it boils and is thickened, at
least 2 minutes.

The mixture should coat the back of a spoon when thickened. It
will continue to thicken as it cools.

Remove chocolate sauce to a small bowl and cover and chill 1 hour
before using. Sauce can be stored in the refrigerator up to a week.
Bring to room temperature and stir before using.

*****Note***** I make homemade pudding instead of mix. Here is a recipe French Vanilla. Just let it cool completely before spreading on base.

I use real whipped cream instead of cool whip.

The chocolate syrup makes more than is needed. I drizzle about 1/3 of the recipe.

It'd be just as easy (easier?) to make coconut cake with 7 minute frosting from scratch !

What is frozen coconut? Never seen that but it looks like you used packaged coconut. I might try to adapt that with homemade cake and fresh whipped cream. Thanks for sharing!

I'm loving all the suggestions and thanks so much for posting your recipes. This is fabulous. But I have to admit, while I'm not a fan of banana cream pie, I am a fan of chocolate cream pie and I haven't made one in 100 yrs...so now I'm thinking that could be a possibility too.

OP, glad to see you can substitute real whipped cream as I'm not a fan of the taste of cool whip. I think that would make the eclair cake even better. Thanks!

Anyone ever make this? Cannoli Poke Cake.

DH will eat anything...except coconut. Seems it brings back bad memories of some sort...something about an aunt he wasn't fond of.

Glenda, I am confused then about the coconut if you must use frozen. Is that picture you posted yours? Is that the coconut you use? It looks like the packages in the baking aisle. I've never seen frozen coconut.

Edit: nevermind, I found the blog the picture is from and that recipe calls for the regular coconut, which is why it's in the picture. I guess you can use either!

Oh, Glenda deleted her recipe. Now I'm talking to myself. Not the first time, lol!

I made a coconut cream pie yesterday, with coconut milk and cream. I sub half milk and half cream and it works perfectly.

When the steps and us got together and Mom was still with us I'd make a carrot cake with cream cheese icing. It was always requested.

Hubby and I also like the unbaked cherry cheesecake with cream cheese and whipped cream on a graham cracker crust.

I love making red velvet cake with cheesecake in the middle, with cream cheese frosting. I used to sell these at work. So festive! I wish I had an interior picture.

I deleted the coconut cake until I could find mother's recipe:

She made hers in three or 4 layers, cutting the two cakes in half. I never could do that so I just made a 3 layered cake with 3 cake pans.

Chi, yes, you do use frozen coconut!

Here's one that is very close to mother's

3
Day Coconut Cake Recipe

Make
at LEAST 3 - 4 days BEFORE you plan to eat.

The night before you begin to prepare cake, blend
together sour cream, coconut (thawed and drained) and sugar. Reserve 1 cup. You must combine the sour cream, coconut and sugar and let chill for at least 30 minutes or overnight is better.

Ingredients:
1 pkg. White cake mix
16
oz. sour cream
12 oz. frozen coconut (thawed)
1 1/2 cup Cool Whip
1 cup
sugar

Directions:

Step
1:
Prepare cake mix as per instructions. Let cool. Split
layers in half to end up with 4 layers.

Step
2:
Spread all but reserved 1 cup of sour
cream/coconut/sugar mixture between layers.

Step
3:
Mix Cool Whip together with reserved 1 cup sour
cream/coconut/sugar mixture. Frost cake with this mixture. Cover with cake plate
cover to keep moist and fresh. Keep refrigerated. Do not eat for THREE DAYS. The
longer it sits, the better it is.

Note:
KEEP OUT OF SIGHT AND OUT OF MIND, to guarantee the cake will age for the
correct amount of time.

How neat to have that recipe! How old is it? I thought cake mixes were a more recent thing but maybe not!

Have you ever had the chocolate Creme brûlée at Bone Fish Grill? it’s delicious, but you’d need to get the ramekins if you don’t have them. It gets lots of good views online.

http://gigglesgobblesandgulps.com/chocolate-creme-brulee/

Here is my Texas Sheet Cake recipe. Mine calls for a 15.5 x 10.5” pan.

Preheat oven to 350. Bring to a boil:

2 sticks butter

1 cup water

4 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa

Remove from heat and add to mixture of:

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

beat in 2 eggs and 1\2 cup sour cream

Pour into greased and floured pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until toothpick is clean. Cool 10 minutes and then add frosting

Frosting:

Bring to boil:

4 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa

6 Tbsp milk

1 stick butter

Remove from heat and add to:

1 box confectioner’s sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans (or walnuts) - optional

pour over cake

Annie, if you go with carrot cake, I use the Southern Living recipe, omitting the coconut. No one but me likes coconut and it is not missed in the recipe. It is very moist and absolutely delicious. I have also made it as a 9x13 sheet cake. If I have a little batter left over I make a small round layer. Easier than assembling a 3-layer cake.

I thought cake mixes were a more recent thing but maybe not!

Cake mix has been around at least since the 1930's but Cool Whip came along in the mid 60s and took a little while to become popular.

Annie Deighnaugh, I made one of those cannoli cakes for Easter once. It did not go over well because it is made with a cake mix. We are not a cake mix family and always bake from scratch. I think cake mixes tend to have an artificial taste.

If you want to make a recipe that requires a cake mix, I posted on another thread recently, maybe on the Cooking forum, that Trader Joe's has a really good vanilla cake mix. I don't ever use mixes either, but needed to make a bunch of cupcakes along with a batch of gluten free ones, too, so I wanted to used a mix. It was delicious with no artificial/chemical taste at all.

We just have pies for dessert. A pumpkin and usually an apple pie. I'm not a pie person so I usually don't have dessert. The last few years though, I did make a sugar free cheesecake that's to die for and if you don't tell anyone there's no sugar or flour in it, they'll never know. It's that good.

Well, DH wanted a list this a.m. so he could shop with his sr. discount, so I was up too late last night but decided on an apple spice bundt cake...only I'll be replacing the raisins with chocolate chips...its made with a cinnamon glaze. In a way it's silly to fret over what dessert to make as the 'vultures' in my family will consume anything sweet. I'll have some madeleines to serve on the side...

Thanks for posting your Eclair Cake, Summer. I knew the picture did not look as if the bottom layer was graham crackers. I do not care for that "eclair" cake. But think I will love the one you posted. Looking forward to trying it.

WalnutCreek - You are very welcome. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Cannoli Cake.....Angel food cake either homemade or store bought cut into three layers. Fill between the layers with cannoli filling. Very easy filling to make with a quick google. Serve with macerated berries on the side

Change of plans...after hearing people at a luncheon rave about Costco's Tuxedo Cake, I think I'll spare myself the effort for a cake that people might like, I'll do a lot less effort for a cake people will love...