Make-ahead dessert recipes
Browse our best make-ahead dessert recipes – all can be made in advance, with the finishing touches added on the day. Perfect to take some stress out of throwing a dinner party.
Choose from crowdpleasing classics such as eton mess and Michel Roux Jr’s chocolate mousse or lemon tart, or new favourites including Japanese soufflé cheesecake and a mango twist on tiramisu.
In the mood for chocolate? We love these molten middle chocolate fondants and our chocolate tart inspired by After Eights. If fruit’s your thing, we have plenty of make-ahead dessert recipes in that vein, too. For summer, opt for a strawberry daiquiri tart; for winter, try our pear and butterscotch cheesecake. And if you’re a pavlova fan, you’ll be spoilt for choice with our topping ideas, from caramelised walnut and coffee to peach bellini and pink praline.
Need starter ideas for your soirée? Check out our recipes, including smoky garlic prawn cocktail and a halloumi and clementine salad.
Showing 1-16 of 178 recipes
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Apple pie recipes
Rick Stein’s double-crust apple pie with a touch of cinnamon
Give Rick Stein's double-crust apple pie recipe a go – it's the taste of autumn. “This is a proper old-fashioned fruit pie," says Rick.
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Easy
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Sweet pie recipes
Salted maple pretzel pie
What do you get if you cross treacle tart, American maple syrup pie and pretzels? A gloriously sticky, slightly salty dessert.
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Italian dessert recipes
Chocolate budino
With only five ingredients, this creamy Italian pudding – chocolate budino – is incredibly simple but beautifully smooth and indulgent.
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Italian dessert recipes
Theo Randall’s torta sacripantina (cherry and raspberry genoise)
Torta sacripantina is a dessert from Liguria. Theo Randall shares his recipe for this genoise cake with cherries, raspberries and zabaione.
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Medium
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Italian dessert recipes
Theo Randall’s torta della nonna (lemon custard tart with pine nut topping)
Torta della nonna is a lemony custard tart topped with pine nuts, popular across northern Italy. Chef Theo Randall shares his recipe.
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Medium
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Italian dessert recipes
Almond granita ‘affogato’
Sicilian chef Alfio Laudani shares a make-ahead dessert perfect for hot summer days. Almond granita is topped with a gorgeous espresso foam.
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Easy
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Make-ahead summer dessert recipes
Paul Ainsworth’s strawberry trifle
Top chef Paul Ainsworth shares a recipe from his debut cookbook, upgrading his dad's classic trifle with fresh peak-season strawberries.
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Strawberry recipes
Strawberry, black pepper and clotted cream tart
This strawberry tart is one seriously impressive summer dessert. Strawberries macerated with black pepper top a rich clotted cream filling.
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Mango dessert recipes
Mango and elderflower mess
Based on the modern classic eton mess, this colourful dessert swaps out the more common strawberries for juicy ripe mango, marinated in floral elderflower cordial.
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Easy
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Mango dessert recipes
Easy mango mousse
With just five ingredients and 15 minutes prep time, this mango mousse is a great recipe to have in your dessert repertoire.
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Easy
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Strawberry recipes
Balsamic-roasted strawberries with mascarpone
Balsamic strawberries with mascarpone make a seriously good grown-up pudding. Try this low-effort, six ingredient summer dessert today.
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Easy
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Frozen dessert recipes
Baklava ricotta semifreddo
Georgina Hayden's spectacular baklava semifreddo has a caramelised filo top and fragrant ricotta and rosewater base. Frozen dessert heaven.
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Easy
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Sweet tart recipes
Michel Roux Jr’s almond and raspberry frangipane tart
Devote an afternoon to making Michel Roux Jr’s classy frangipane tart. “This French version of a bakewell tart is one of my favourites,” he says.
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Easy
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Fondant recipes
Tom Kerridge’s cappuccino fondants
These melting-middle cappuccino fondants by Tom Kerridge are hard to resist thanks to the combo of indulgent chocolate and aromatic coffee.
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Medium
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Frozen dessert recipes
Mini baked alaskas
Introducing our failsafe mini baked alaskas: chocolate no-churn ice cream, sturdy sponge base, no-cook jam and silky torched swiss meringue.
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