Frugal desserts that look and taste like a million dollars?

What about a tower made with choux buns(profiteroles) with chocolate sauce poured over the top and spun sugar.

Not sure how much you want to spend but I make this and its always a hit, has the same consistency as cheesecake without the cheese!

Assuming you had to buy everything in it would cost you about £4.

Lemon Fridge Tart

250g Ginger Nut biscuits
70g Melted Unsalted Butter
1.5tsp Cinnamon
400g Condensed Milk
250ml Whipping Cream
125ml Lemon Juice

crush the biscuits, add in the butter and cinnamon. Once it begins to clump together transfer to tin, press down firmly, place in the fridge to cool.

In a bowl mix the condensed milk and the lemon juice together, once mixed add in the cream and whisk until its thick.

Transfer to the tin and smooth out so its level. Sprinkle the top with lemon zest (optional).

Place in the fridge overnight.

Farm foods are selling tins of caramel farmlea think for 39p or there abouts, a cheap packet of Tesco/asda digestives, butter 2 bananas pot of cream or elmlea(think this might be cheaper in ff too) and sprinkles of chocolate(basic bar of shops own)
Job done, I did find the caramel to taste a bit long life iykwim straight out of the tin but after wanging in the nanas taste gone.

You could put a little spin on traditional desserts by dishing up in individual portions. Gives them a bit more of a fancy restaurant type look

E.g. mini brownies, banoffee pies, cheesecakes, etc., mousse or trifle type desserts can be served in shot glasses or other small serving glasses

http://www.mybakingaddiction.com/mini-brownies-and-cheesecakes/
http://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/courses/dessert-recipes/too-cute-mini-desserts


One recipe I do that is always requested is my "Malteser mess" cake. I originally made this recipe for chocolate cake, but in omitting the coffee (yuck), I didn't read the part about adding water. Doing so resulted in a more dense cake that fell apart on trying to turn it out from the tin - disaster! With 5 minutes before I had to leave for the family meal, I broke up the cake pieces, layered with the ganache topping, and chucked a bag full of Maltesers in there to make it look like it was all intentional. Not only did it pay off, but it became a firm family favourite - I had to miscook the cake to recreate it!
http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3092/ultimate-chocolate-cake

However, the recipe is a bit of a faff and some ingredients aren't the cheapest. I discovered a simple chocolate brownie recipe a while ago, and after that got the thumbs up, I decided one day to experiment - delicious but complicated fudgy chocolate cake got substituted for my tasty brownie. No one really noticed the difference, and dessert has been just as big a hit. This is the brownie recipe I use, which is a lot less fancy. I don't even bother with choc chips, just cut up part of a bar of chocolate and chuck the chunks in (mixing milk and white chocolate is particularly yummy!)
http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/24795/decadent-double-chocolate-brownies.aspx

It's absolutely divine served warm - though trial and error discovered it's better to omit the Maltesers until serving, as microwaving makes them go a little chewy

Decided to try the easy lemon tart recipe ,but opened a caramel condensed milk. Imade it with stem ginger instead of lemon, absolutely gorgeous!:T