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Make-ahead dessert

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 179 recipes

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Christmas cupcakes and small bakes

Gingercake bites

Sticky gingercake gets better with age, so it’s perfect for giving as a Christmas gift. We’ve coated each cube of cake with a lemony icing.

Medium

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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.

Freezable

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.

Freezable

Medium

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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.

Gluten-free

Easy

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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.

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.

Vegetarian

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.

Dairy-free Freezable Gluten-free Make-ahead

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.

Gluten-free

Challenge

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Crumble recipes

Meliz Berg’s spiced fruit baklava crumble

Freezable Vegetarian

Easy

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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.

Make-ahead

Medium

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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.

Gluten-free Vegetarian