does anyone know of a nice easy dessert to make? My mum is cooking for 20 people on Tuesday and wants a nice simple dessert to do. She did a tiramisu for the same people last week so cant do that again. She lives in France so things that we can easily get over here are a little more difficult to find over there :)

Lemon souffle always impresses people and is really easy to make - made cold with gelatine rather than baked

The absolute best lemon tart in the world...

http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/03/10/2008/315947/harveys-lemon-tart-by-marco-pierre-white.htm

Oatmeal cookies

3/4 cup shortening (e.g. Trex)
1 cup brown sugar (packed)]
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup water
1 rsp vanilla extract
1 cup plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp cloves
1 cup raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts or hazelnits
3 cups jumbo rolled oats

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Mix shortening, sugars, egg, water and vanilla, then stir in remaining ingredients. Use greased baking sheet and drop mixture 1" apart. Bake 12-15 minutes (they spread to be quite flat). Cool on wire rack. Makes c. 5 dozen cookies.

Chocolate chip cookies

2/3 cup shortening
2/3/ cup margarine or butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar (packed)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 packages milk chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate drops

Heat oven to 375 degrees. Mix shortening, margarine/butter, sugars, eggs and vanilla, then stir in remaining ingredients. Add 1/2 cup plain flour for a softer cookie. Use ungreased baking sheet and drop mixture 2" apart. Bake 8-10 minutes (they spread to be quite flat). Cool on wire rack. Makes c. 7 dozen cookies (and why would you want to make less :)?).

Twould appear I have a busy week ahead of me!!

Firstly going to make the pumpkin soup recipe as they're on offer at asda and I'm having a splurge on homemade soup at the mo.

And then there's the JD banana cake!! Got everything but the maple syrup and walnuts for that one!! And personally I believe any cake with fruit or veg in it counts as one of your 5 a day, if you eat enough of it!! Bananas count!

On the other hand it's a balanced diet if I have the soup followed by the cake that's 2 of my 5 a day!!

I feel a lot of snowboarding coming on to counterbalance the effects of the cake.............And I board better after whisky!!