No Bake Dessert for Birthday Celebration

[alexia]

I need to arrive tomorrow PM with an attractive NO BAKE cake, pie, or otherwise festive dessert fit for a 6 year old's grown up''s birthday celebration. (The kiddie bd party has already happened). Anything goes as long as I don't use the oven.

Suggestions?

[Risa]

My suggestion is some sort of ice cream cake or bombe. You let ice cream soften a little and place in your desired mold. You can layer it with crushed cookies or even chocolate bars and decorate as desired. For a more elegant dessert, how about molding the ice cream in a bowl (line bowl with plastic wrap first for easy release), freeze, unmold then cover with a yummy ganache (does warming cream or melting chocolate count as cooking?). You can decorate with chocolate squiggles, various chocolate shapes, dragees or anything else that would be attractive. I think epicurious has several recipes.

[LotusCakeStudio]

I second Risa's idea. Sounds yummy.

Just curious... why can't you bake anything? I hope you're oven isn't broken!

[homechef777]

Have you considered making a trifle? You can use store bought cake such as pound cake or sponge cake. Canned whipped cream, fresh or frozen berries, jarred fruit preserves etc. Then, you can assemble the components in layers and make a spectacular presentation that even the grown-ups will like.

[alexia]

Thank you for your suggestions.

I think the ice cream mold is out as it will be a BBQ and I won't be able to keep it cold long enough.

I am in fact considering a trifle, as they are so pretty - and tasty. When I make them I usually make a creme anglaise as I like it so much better than something packaged (though I have been known to stoop to vanilla (packaged) pudding. And my granddaughter enjoys seeing the cream become whipped cream.

[homechef777]

If you really want to save some work, instead of actually making creme anglaise, you could allow some good quality vanilla ice cream to melt and you have no work at all. It is after all just a frozen creme anglaise.

[Isa]

I wouldn't call this attractive but it's the kind of stuff lkids like. For adults think of something else.

It's a confection served in a sand bucket. I think it's a mixture of chocolate wafers reduce to crumbs with some whipped cream and other ingredients. I believe you add all sort of jelly worms for decoration.

[alexia]

Homechef, Well, here's the sequel. Traipsed all over looking for a ready made sponge cake to no avail. Even the bakery that ALWAYS has pound cake had only chocolate pound cake. So with a ton of garden work to do, I gave in and bought a beautiful fruit tart: sliced strawberries crowned by blueberries on a shortbread crust with semi-sweet chocolate under the just barely sweet pastry cream.

The one false note to my mind was the somewhat gelatinous glaze on the fruit. I much prefer one made from fruit preserves.

Isa, I'm sure kids would love such a confection, but I leave the children's birthday party cakes to my DIL. I make the ones for family dinners. And fortunately, my now 6 year old GD, who has watched the cooking shows with her Daddy for years and has been cooking with both of us nearly as long, has fairly sophisticated tastes. She flipped over the beautiful tart, analyzing with her Dad just what made it so good!

[Isa]

A kid with taste!


That's fantastic Alexia.

[homechef777]

Hehehehe

A wonderful fall back position Alexia. I have often availed myself of a bakery confection in a pinch I've even neglected to tell the recipient where it came from while not taking credit for it either.

You're so lucky to have a grand daughter with such a precocious palate

Isa, I saw a recipe once for making jello worms using straws and a very stiff gelatin mixture. It required 3 packets of plain gelatin mixed with grape Jello. About 100 stretched out flexible straws are place in a clean milk carton and the mixture is added to it and chilled till set. The straws are then squeezed from end to end to extrude the worms. Great fun for the kids and jello fans.

[homechef777]

Oh by the way Alexia did you catch Annies post about her experience with fruit glazes in response to my other thread?

[alexia]

Homechef, I did follow that thread. And I'm willing to allow for different preferences. Mine is for a good quality fruit preserve reduced with some liqueur, sparing administered. I don't like the gelatinous quality of the commercial glazes. I can understand that a pastry shop would like them as they probably act as a kind of preservative for the fruit, sealing it off from the air more effectively than what I do. It gave a beautiful sheen to the tart I bought today, but I didn't like the texture it added. And for the homecook, the preserves/liquers give an opportunity to either augment or complement the flavor of the fruit.

Yes Isa, it's fun to see our children, grandchildren mirroring some of our obessessions. I think I'll wait a few weeks til school's been out a bit and hand on your suggestion with Homechef's addition on to my DIL as a way of passing a LONG summer's day. It does sound like fun.