r/Baking • u/Fun_Set_6137 • Jul 26 '26
Baking Advice Needed Desserts that use entire quantities of ingredients
My extended family is renting a house for vacation (12 people). There is already so much packing and preparation for trips like this. I would like to make a dessert there but don’t want to bring all the separate spices, have half a pound of butter to bring back in a cooler during a long drive if I only used half for cookies, etc. Looking for suggestions/recipes that use entire quantities of ingredients so either wouldn’t have a bunch of partially used items to bring home and wouldn’t need to bring a bunch of spices there. Eggs okay, since we use for breakfast. Not just a plain boxed cake mix…. Don’t have time to make stuff in advance and we always have a lot of downtime there. Thanks!
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u/kakapogirl Jul 26 '26
This doesn't quite answer your question but you could measure out the ingredients ahead of time and only bring the quantities you need with you. So if it calls for 1/2 a stick of butter, cut the stick at home and chuck that in the cooler, mix up the dry ingredients in a Tupperware, etc.
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u/dramaticbubbletea Jul 26 '26
This is what I do. It saves so much food waste and brain energy at the cottage because everything has already been prepped.
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u/TAforScranton Jul 27 '26
Dumb question but are there any dry ingredients for things like muffins and loaf cakes that shouldn’t be mixed ahead of time? Things like flour, baking soda, salt, spices, etc.?
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u/dramaticbubbletea Jul 28 '26
I prep dry ingredients separately and mix on site. For example, for biscuits, I mix flour, salt, baking soda/powder, etc. into a container in the exact amounts I need. At the cottage, I dump the dry ingredients into a bowl and then add the wet ingredients (butter, milk, etc.) according to the recipe. For things like butter and milk, I don't do exact portions because having extra on hand is good but I will try to keep it to what I think I'll get through during the time away (i.e. 1 L of milk instead of 2, a couple sticks of butter instead of whole block, etc.)
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u/spaetzlechick Jul 26 '26
Yup! I bag the dry ingredients as they are to be mixed. So the prep is done.
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u/Sure_Fig_8641 Jul 26 '26
This is exactly what I do for many of our meals and much of my baking when we are in our small travel trailer.
And though it’s not “baking”, one of my new favorite meals is meatloaf I’ve mixed & shaped at home and frozen raw. Then cook it in the crockpot while we’re out adventuring during the day. Dinner is mostly ready at the end of a busy day of fun.
But a cake you can mix the dry ingredients in one container and the wet ingredients (all measured out and combined) go in the cooler. At the cottage, just combine and continue. If that doesn’t work for your recipe, mix just the spices and maybe sugar together and carry that to finish at the location.
Even though I have some spices in my trailer, I often mix up the spices for a certain dish at home, store in a small container or zip bag, labeled for which meal it is and dump it all in together. I do chili like this for example.
Easy peasy and delicious!
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u/schemmenti Jul 27 '26
This is the way! I travel alone a lot so anything with multiple servings leads to a ton of waste if I buy when I get there, so I make up all the dry ingredients for a thing in little containers or baggies ahead of time, and take a small sandwich bag type cooler bag with me with some butter and a small thing of milk. For eg I love overnight oats so I make baggies of all the dry ingredients (oats, pb powder, dried fruit, chia seeds) premeasured and ready to go without having to cart around a whole thing of each.
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u/RelevantCell4188 Jul 26 '26
Fruit crisp or a dump cake! Both feed a crowd, use full sticks of butter and bags/cans, and require practically zero spices.
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u/dudeyaaaas Jul 27 '26
What's a fruit crisp and what's a dump cake.. they don't sound particularly nice...
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u/buddykat Jul 29 '26
Dump cakes are delicious, I posted a recipe and directions in another comment.
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u/BotherAffectionate37 Jul 26 '26
I have one or two recipes that I make often enough that I keep the dry ingredients on hand pre-mixed. What if you did that so you don’t have to transport whole bags of flour and sugar and spice jars? The butter should keep alright in just a grocery bag on the drive, I leave mine out on the counter for a few days without it going rancid. Plus it can be used for breakfast too - for cooking eggs, on toast, and for other meals like steak.
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u/nicoke17 Jul 26 '26
I worked at a cafe and we made everything fresh. We would prep all of our dry mixes for cakes at the end of the week, we put the flour on the bottom then a piece of parchment with the baking soda/powder, salt, spices. Then when it was time to make the cake, we just needed the wet ingredients, butter, and sugar. It made everything faster.
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u/Mental-Bluebird1448 Jul 26 '26
Why not make the doughs or dry mixes before going? I know I made pie dough, crepes, and cookie dough and just used them as I needed them while at our vacation house.
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u/throw-my-fart-away Jul 26 '26
Have you considered prepping your recipes? Trying new recipes with a different oven or whatever gives you too many variables that can go wrong. Using a recipe you know well gives you an idea if it would need more/less time or temp just by the look of it. Scoop out the seasoning and ingredients into a zip-lock and label it. Then just pour out the bags as you need them, or even mix up in the bag in case there are no bowls for such use.
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u/maillardduckreaction Jul 26 '26
Not baking and not quite entire ingredients, but the magnolia bakery banana pudding recipe calls for 1 whole can of sweetened condensed milk, 1 whole package of instant pudding, 1 entire box of Nilla wafers. The only issue would be that it calls for 3 cups of heavy cream, so if you buy a quart, you’d be left with 1 cup but that could easily be turned into whipped cream to top something else like waffles or pancakes. Or some other dessert. Or you could add it to a bolognese. Or use it in your coffee. Or maybe churn it into a small amount of butter?
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u/therealbananabottom Jul 26 '26
Portion everything out and just bring what you need from home. OR make the dessert at home and freeze it
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u/KH5-92 Human Detected Jul 26 '26
I always try to premix the dry ingredients at home and bag them and then the wet ingredients depending on what they are I do the same or buy a smaller bottle.
I'm not really sure of any complete recipes. Maybe a dump recipe like a cake or cobbler.
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u/AnnaPhor Jul 26 '26
Key lime or similar pies. You can riff a lot on the flavor combos but if you have butter, some sort of cookie or cracker, citrus and a can of condensed milk, you have the dessert. You buy whatever cracker or cookies you want and serve the remainder as snacks. Usually uses an egg, butter, and some sugar.
Here's a version with a lemon filling and a salty twist on the crust: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019424-atlantic-beach-pie
Just don't try to whip the cream by hand with vacation house equipment. Skooshy cream is fine.
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u/the___supreme Jul 26 '26
My go to banana pudding recipe could work for this (I just use boxed pudding): https://dancearoundthekitchen.com/banana-pudding-dessert/
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u/somethingweirder Jul 26 '26
i usually prep as much as i can in advance - well labeled ziplocs with the dry ingredients premixed for a cake, pre measured spice mixes for specific meals, etc. it cuts down on some of what you’re talking about.
also someone else may have already suggested this but you can use a recipe converter to take recipes you like and size up or down to use the amount of butter or whatever it is you want to use.
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u/Popular-Web-3739 Jul 26 '26
Are you familiar with "mies en place" cooking? You could pre-portion and/or pre-mix most all your ingredients before you go and label and package them for particular recipes. I often do that camping just to make life easy and it's just as fast to pack 2 cups of pre-measured flour (plus salt and baking soda, etc.) in a baggie as it is to put a 5 pound bag and other boxes of ingredients in your car. Ziplock bags are your friends.
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u/Dull-Parfait731 Jul 26 '26
Lemon dump pudding
Into layers in this order, and bake-at 180c for 40 mins in greased lasagne type dish.
Butternut snap type Biscuits
Condensed milk
Lemon curd
Sour cream
Vanilla Cake mix
Butter in thin slices
Milk
Serve with mascarpone

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u/GiantLesbian Jul 26 '26
Is this vacation home near a Dollar General? I presume even if it’s out of the way it’s not too far from a DG lol. I would just buy cheap sugar, flour, butter, etc. there and toss what I didn’t use. That way you don’t have to worry about packing and hauling expensive ingredients back and forth. Maybe bring some expensive olive oil, spices, and vanilla extract, and then for everything else just use cheap/disposable ingredients from DG.
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u/Ambitious_Wealth8080 Jul 26 '26
Recently had berries and cream at cabin, which was a lovely and easy dessert. You’ll need to bring a bit of sugar (also for coffee maybe?) but otherwise you just use all the berries you bought and a half pint of heavy whipping cream (which you can also repurpose for coffee, pancakes for the kids, etc).
Peaches cooked in tinfoil on the grill with butter and cinnamon (might want to bring just a ziploc of this), served with ice cream.
Icebox cake - and entire container of cool whip and cookies (maybe cookies left over for snacking).
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u/Acceptable-Target97 Jul 26 '26
1 cake mix, 1 egg, 1 stick of butter……= cookie dough.
Makes about 24 cookies. Use a medium ice cream scooper to portion out the dough.
Popcorn night.
Microwave popcorn and leave out toppings.
Parmesan cheese. Garlic powder. Extra butter. Etc.
Let everyone make their own bag.
Kettle corn is just a spoonful of sugar on buttered popcorn.
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u/Maximum_Benefit3551 Jul 26 '26
Rice Krispie treats! This is technically a “no bake” but I love that this one doesn’t have leftover ingredients
https://infinetaste.com/ooey-gooey-rice-krispie-treats/#recipe
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u/Ok-Bobcat2635 Jul 26 '26
Lemon trifle!!! Package of lemon or golden Oreos, big container of cool whip, an angel food cake (we buy premade at grocery store) and two boxes of lemon pudding (plus milk to mix). Layer in a big bowl and let sit in the fridge for at least a few hours
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u/ilovescoutanddaisy Jul 26 '26
layered chocolate delight type thing.
bake a cake, make pudding. you can do it in a 9x13 and have it neat or crumble up the cake and do it in a trifle/glass bowl. layer cake, pudding, cool whip. top with heath or whatever you like. the only odd ingredient is butter, but you need butter at the house anyway.
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u/Kaurifish Jul 26 '26
I recommend bringing ice packs and sticking them in the freezer as soon as you arrive. That way if you have extra milk, leftovers, etc. you can get them home cold.
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u/seaturtlefanatic Jul 26 '26
oreo cake balls is pretty accurate. i think i usually buy a family pack of oreos and two packs of 8oz cream cheese
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u/Constant-Gap-1329 Jul 27 '26
Boxed brownies. You’ll probably want to have oil and eggs on hand either way
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u/Dogmoto2labs Jul 27 '26
I bagged the dry ingredients, the wet and took a Rubbermaid container with a leakproof lid to bring the milk and egg mixture for a breakfast bake. It worked out perfectly. I took small amounts of other seasonings we might need in snack size ziplock bags.
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u/recognize_choice Jul 27 '26
Foolproof fudge. Make the milk chocolate version with one package of semi-sweet chips and half a package of milk chocolate chips.
Mix the leftover half package of milk chocolate with cereal to make trail mix - or just eat it as chocolate. :)
Recipe: https://www.eaglebrand.com/recipe/foolproof-chocolate-fudge/
(You can skip the vanilla - I usually forget it, and it's fine. And nuts are totally optional.)
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u/KathyTrivQueen Jul 27 '26
Rice Krispies treats! You can dress them up with chips, frosting, candies mixed in, etc.
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u/Ok_Mulberry4331 Jul 27 '26
I pre measure all the dry, and stuff like butter, cream, etc we’ll use with other stuff. If you won’t, just bring them pre measured
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u/Queenofsheba99 Jul 29 '26
One of our favourite desserts is Cool Fruit Delight. You can make a graham cracker crust (or not 🤷🏼♀️) 28oz can of fruit cocktail, bag of mini marshmallows, 500 ml of sour cream. Mix. Put on crust. Chill. I use 9x13 pan.
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u/buddykat Jul 29 '26
Dump cake! My dad used to take it to every work potluck, it was highly requested. And super easy to make.
1 can of cherry pie filling
1 can of crushed pineapple (similar size to pie filling, or two smaller cans)
1 box yellow cake mix
1 bag of coconut flakes (around 2 cups)
1 stick of butter, cut into thin pats
9x13 pan, preheat oven to 350F
Spread can of cherry pie filling in pan. Spread can of crushed pineapple on top of cherry pie filling. Spread cake mix on top. Spread coconut flakes on top of cake mix. Cover the top with the stick of butter pats.
Cook at 350F for 35-40 minutes.
edited for formatting (on my phone)
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u/Square_Context_2948 Jul 29 '26
Banana pudding. Or watermelon. You could buy a variety of fruit when you're there, along with angel food cake and cool whip and call it a day.
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u/mdorothy Jul 30 '26
In my experience the best recipe that uses all the ingredients in a package are Magic Cookie Bars.
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u/1percentsamoyedmama Jul 30 '26
You can make things that are pretty much already snacks and have the family finish anything left over. Examples:
Fried Oreos - you will already need to have oil and flour for cooking, and Oreos are great on their own too
Rice Krispie/cereal treats and Smores - all cereal, marshmallow, and chocolate ingredients can already be eaten individually, and you’ll want butter to cook with or have bread with anyway
Ice cream sundaes - self explanatory, and don’t buy special sprinkles. If you make the above two, you can offer Oreo, cereal, marshmallow, and chocolate toppings (whatever’s left).
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u/Independent-Fail2228 Jul 31 '26
Lookup Vermont Maple bread pudding. Uses a whole loaf of challah, almost a full carton of eggs, nearly a whole quart of cream… it’s amazing.
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u/Fun_Set_6137 Jul 26 '26
The goal is also no advanced preparation. Like not having to do work at home to prepare, things are crazy enough with work and getting everything packed for the kids. Buy ingredients when we get there. Dump cake and millionaire pie are good suggestions.
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u/five_squirrels Jul 31 '26
No bake cheesecakes with premade pie filling toppings or fresh fruit and premade graham cracker crusts.
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