Delicious Christmas desserts

The Christmas pudding

Love it or loathe it, Christmas pudding is an integral part of the meal, not least for providing a good excuse to get stuck into the brandy butter.

Christmas Pudding recipe

See also: Christmas dinner timetable

Yule log

The Yule Log has been a European Christmas tradition for centuries. It is essentially a chocolate roulade decorated with chocolate shavings and icing sugar to make it resemble the large pieces of wood that were burned in the hearth on Christmas. It can be as simple or as complicated as you like, filled with the traditional (and very rich) buttercream, chestnut puree, truffle or brandy cream, creme fraiche or plain, whipped double cream.

GO TO RECIPE

See also: Christmas dinner timetable

Golden Christmas cake

Full of fruity goodness, this recipe for moist golden Christmas cake will go down a treat. Properly stored, this cake will keep for months - making it the perfect item to make ahead of time.

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See also: Christmas lunch: the essentials

German chocolate cake biscuits

Mince pies

Until you make these mince pies, you'll never appreciate just how easy and fast they are. You can freeze them uncooked and cook them from frozen, or else you can freeze them cooked and warm them through when defrosted. From Delia's Christmas Easy.

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See also: Christmas lunch: the essentials

Stollen cake

Pears in ginger-spiced red wine

This makes a wonderful emergency dessert, served with a ginger biscuit and dollop of Greek yoghurt or creme fraiche.

See also: Christmas lunch: the essentials