For Easy Fun, Let Them Eat Cake--and Other Desserts

‘Tis the season for dessert parties, what with graduations, block parties, after-theater or fund-raising events, wedding receptions and musicales.

Actually, dessert parties are one of the least-expensive ways to plan any large-scale gathering, according party expert Robert Willson, executive chef of Parties Plus caterers in Los Angeles.

You can, Willson says, save 50% on the food cost by doing a dessert party over a regular party. You can save 75% by doing it yourself.

It’s not a difficult party to do. The menu is short and sweet--dessert and wine. No fuss, no muss.

And because desserts are decorations in themselves, you’ll need little if any other decoration. If you must decorate, consider the stuffed toy animals used to highlight the jungle theme of a dessert-laden dais at a recent Concern Foundation block party fund-raiser catered by Parties Plus. Even the desserts prepared by Parties Plus pastry chef Amy Pressman (formerly with Spago), were inexpensive. “Desserts don’t have to be elaborate and expensive in order to be good. The whole point was to keep things within the fund-raising budget, yet to produce desserts that were glamorous and tasty,” Pressman said.

Look at the Markets

However, doing the desserts yourself, unless you have the skill, can be costly if you botch things up. If you’re game for a bit of legwork, today’s markets are filled with novelty bakeries and purveyors of desserts in every category, ethnic origin and price range.

You can, for instance, pick up a lovely Scandinavian princess cake at Federico’s, a French fruit tart from Julienne’s (both in Pasadena), an Italian rum cake from Sarno’s in Los Angeles, or Hungarian babka from the numerous Northern European delis around town. If you prefer ethnic menu themes, many Mexican bakeries sell churros (long doughnut sticks) as well as numerous appealing sweet breads and flan. Japanese and Chinese bakeries offer unusual tea cakes, many of them with a Franco-Japonais touch. Many hotel restaurants will sell pastries to go, and so will caterers. Gourmet delis often provide a full range of exciting desserts from which to choose and will often work with a client in designing custom desserts.

And, while you’re at it, think in terms of weather--the potential heat. “Stay away from things that will melt or are highly perishable, such as custards, which people will be afraid to eat in hot weather,” Willson advised.

Start With Cake

You can doctor up prepared plain bakery sheet cakes by topping them with favorite creams and fruit, and drizzled maple, butterscotch, chocolate or other sauces and toppings. Chasen’s restaurant in Los Angeles uses bananas, whipped cream and chocolate sauce.

Here’s the dessert menu from the Concern block party, as prepared by Pressman. See if there are some ideas which you can adapt or adopt.

--Caramel tarts (filled with pecan, almonds, cashews and walnuts) were served in individual rounds. They can be frozen.

--White chocolate truffle tarts (also in individual rounds) topped with strawberries.

--Buttermilk custard tarts topped with raspberries and blueberries.

--Vanilla bean and butterscotch, apple, and chocolate walnut-flavored brownies piled pyramid-fashion on a tray.

--A mile-high, all-American, three-layer devil’s food cake covered with chocolate frosting and topped with chocolate curls.

--Cookies: checkerboard, flavored with orange and espresso; poppy seed; old fashioned molasses butter cookies; chocolate chip cookies and shortbread cookies.

--Large strawberries with stems dipped in bitter-sweet chocolate sauce.

--Puff pastry haystacks (scraps of puff pastry are shredded, mounded and baked, then dusted with cinnamon-sugar).

--Robin Rose ice cream (donated).