Desserts for big crowds

Q: What's an easy dessert to make for entertaining a big crowd?

A: Individual things are definitely more time consuming. Instead, think about things like sheetcakes, brownies — things you can make in one big dish are quicker to make to feed a larger crowd. The one thing you're never going to do is please everybody and you shouldn't try. There's going to be someone allergic to nuts, someone who's on a diet or doesn't eat sugar. I usually make a fresh fruit salad for those people. And personally, I wouldn't want a meal without dark chocolate, so I always do a dessert that includes it.

When it comes to sheetcakes, it doesn't have to be a cafeteria-esque white or yellow cake. You can use your grandmother's coffee-cake recipe in a 9- x 13-inch pan. If a recipe makes two 9-inch round layers, it will fit in a 9- x 13-inch sheet pan, but remember to watch your baking times.

When it's hot and you don't want to turn on the oven, make an ice cream bombe or cake, with no cake component. For a bombe, line a bowl with plastic wrap and soften some high-quality vanilla. Make a even layer of ice cream all around the bowl for the outer shell, and chill it in the freezer. (It helps to chill between each layer.) Then make an even layer of raspberry ice cream or sorbet, then fill up the center with dark chocolate ice cream or gelato. Freeze thoroughly and then unmold before serving. That's a nice way to make a good dessert that looks homemade — that is, in fact, homemade! Serve slices plain or with a bittersweet dark chocolate sauce, or a raspberry coulis or a caramel sauce.

A few days ago, my daughter had a party on a hot day, and I made an ice cream cake with a very deep round cake pan, 8 x 3 inches. I lined it with plastic wrap, did a layer of raspberry sorbet and a layer of lime sherbet. I softened vanilla ice cream and stirred in some dark rum and packed that in to fill the pan. When you unmold it, you see three layers and you just slice it like a cake.

Also, you could buy or make really good chocolate chip cookies, using high quality dark chocolate and make your own ice cream sandwiches with them. One of the recipes on cover of my book Bake it to the Limit (Morrow, 1999) is a chocolate chip cookie that we sandwich with homemade espresso ice cream (but you could use store-bought coffee ice cream). Then the entire sandwich is half dipped in bittersweet chocolate and chilled. No cooking, and it's great for any age, kid or adult.

- Dede Wilson, author of Christmas Cooking for Dummies (Hungry Minds, September 2001)