The dinner party has been planned for ages, but you've left that complicated dessert until the last minute. Then disaster! You're forced to work late and there's no way you'll be able to make it. There's only one way out - a sneaky trip round the supermarket on the way home.

What amateur cook, in some moment of crisis, hasn't resorted to a spot of cheating?

Supermarket food has now become so sophisticated it's very tempting to cheat even when you don't have a crisis. There are the simple and commonly accepted short-cuts such as buying frozen pastry or bags of ready-washed salad.

But nowadays you can buy some incredible party nibbles, fishy starters, main courses, sauces and exotic puddings which all have a natural taste that could be passed off as home-made.

Using them doesn't necessarily mean telling a lie. Those who confess to taking ready-made short cuts say that they usually make no claims, and leave their guests to make the assumptions.

This report sets out, in a spirit of good humour, to find out how far you could go.

We chose eight frozen food items and asked our hosts and hostesses to tell a 'tall story' about how they'd prepared and cooked it. They then served it and secretly noted down people's reactions, which of course, tended to be polite.

But we asked our hosts to explain the ruse after their guests had tasted the food and to ask them for an honest opinion. We were also interested to know what our hosts themselves thought of the food they'd been testing.

Six out of the eight frozen food items got rave reports from the guests - even when they knew its true origins, one was liked by almost everyone round the table, and only one got a general thumbs down.

The message seems to be that if you have to cheat by buying frozen you're unlikely to be caught out and there's a strong chance that the food you serve will be as good as the equivalent made at home.