Holiday desserts — Impress Christmas guests with these delicious treats

LEHI — Martha Moench has a recipe for whatever kind of holiday dessert you want — from the labor-intensive Christmas Bombe to a simple Sticky Toffee Pudding.

They're all delicious and impressive in their own way.

The toffee pudding isn't much to look at, but it melts in the mouth and requires only a couple of steps.

The Christmas Bombe is more complicated but can be prepared in advance.

Moench, who used to run her own catering business, prepared the desserts in the Kitchen Emporium at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi recently.

For the Christmas Bombe, she starts with a hot milk sponge cake that is spread with a cranberry or raspberry filling, rolled up, cut in slices, layered with white chocolate mousse and glazed with apple jelly.

Hot Milk Sponge Cake:

1/8 cup milk

3 tablespoon unsalted butter

1 cup cake flour (sifted 3 times to remove lumps)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup sugar

4 large eggs

3 egg yolks

Butter a jelly roll pan, line with wax or parchment so it overhangs by 2 inches, butter and flour again. Preheat over to 400 degrees. Heat milk with butter in small saucepan until butter melts. Reduce to low and keep hot. (Don't simmer.) Sift flour with baking powder twice. Set aside. In large heatproof bowl, whisk together sugar, whole eggs and egg yolks. Set bowl over pan of simmering water. Heat mixture, whisking occasionally, until lukewarm.

Transfer bowl to an electric mixer. Beat at high speed until cooled, triple in volume with consistency of thick, whipped cream.

Sift one-third of the flour mixture over the batter. Fold in gently by hand with a large, rubber spatula. Fold in half of the remaining flour. Then fold in the rest.

Pour hot milk and butter in and fold well, scraping the bottom each time. Turn batter into jelly roll pan. Bake until cake is browned and springs back when pressed — about 10 minutes. Let cool in pan on rack or roll up in a towel sprinkled with powdered sugar. Let cool.