The trifle 'thing' all started when one of my cousins had a Pampered Chef party. For those who don't know, Pampered Chef is a direct selling kitchen tools company, where someone has a party and friends order kitchen gadgets. Anyway at the party I had my eye on this deluxe trifle bowl with removable stand and lid making it easy to store and transport but it was really too expensive to justify buying. I told my Mum about it and lo and behold she bought it for our family in lieu of Easter Eggs as long as I promised to make lots of sharing family trifles in it.
The first trifle I made was served at what I termed "The first and inaugural trifle night" when in fact none of the family were invited(!) but friends instead. Prior to this event I had been to London with work friends for a birthday celebration and had a rather scrummy strawberry ice cream sundae at Bella Italia in Leicester Square, liberally doused in vanilla Galliano liqueur. I decided to invent a 'Godfather Fragola' trifle based on the dessert and including the vanilla liqueur.
I ordered the Galliano from a website specialising in liqueurs along with some others to be included in future puddings, and soaked some madeira cake I had frozen (offcuts from my son's birthday cake) in it. Then for the next layer - the jelly - I made my own strawberry jelly as I had a vegetarian who would be eating it so no pork gelatine allowed. I used a mix of vegetarian gel powder, water and strawberry puree and it worked very well. I set strawberry pieces into the jelly. The next layer was custard (home made, as discussed below) and sliced strawberries around the outside of the bowl. Then more strawberries. Then whipped cream with crushed meringue in and grated chocolate. Topped with whole strawberries, grated chocolate and strawberry coulis. And chocolate cigarillo biscuits, which seemed like a good idea at the time but afterwards I thought they weren't aesthetically pleasing and possibly a bit over the top... but what the hell. They liked it anyway.
The second trifle was made for my Dads birthday and most definitely a family affair. This was a 'Grasshopper' trifle based on Nigella's Grasshopper pie. No grasshoppers were harmed in its making. It had chocolate cake in the bottom, made specially and soaked in a mixture of creme de menthe and creme de cacao. Next, lime jelly with grapes and kiwi fruit and sliced kiwi fruit around the bowl. Then grasshopper custard which is milk with marshmallows melted into it, mixed with creme de menthe and creme de cacao and folded into whipped cream with some green food colouring. The next layer was whipped cream with crushed bourbon biscuits in (the original grasshopper pie has them in the base) and halved grapes around the bowl, finished with halved slices of kiwi and chocolate letters spelling out the birthday greeting.
That trifle was very different from the first but just as good in its own way. For the third trifle I thought I'd go for the more traditional effect but in a kind of 'deluxe' way.
I had some leftover white chocolate and macadamia blondie (as opposed to brownie) cupcakes in the freezer, so I used them, soaked in Mil's favourite sherry, Croft Original. It felt very bad opening a bottle of sherry before 7am! Then a layer of raspberry jelly which was left to set and then a layer of lime jelly with whole raspberries in. Brother-in-law had said lime was his favourite jelly flavour but raspberry would go better in a trifle, so I put both in. I went to work for the day and left the jelly to set. After the jelly came a layer of grapes, blueberries and sliced lime around the bowl. The lime we found afterwards was very good at balancing out the extreme sweetness of the rest of the ingredients. Next came the custard.
Making real custard is a true labour of love and probably one of the few times in my life where I can actually truthfully say I am bored. It's not therapeutic, like stirring a risotto,as I live in mortal fear of the dreaded curdling! I stirred it for what seemed like an eternity and finally it did thicken. Without curdling. Sighs of relief all round. The next morning, the next layer was added, crushed hob nob biscuits, followed by whipped cream with marshmallows in. Decoration was provided by flaked almonds, coloured polka dots, edible glitter, chocolate lettering and an ice fountain indoor firework. I drew an 'Illustrated guide to your birthday trifle' and put it in his birthday card. The side view was perhaps a bit messy compared to the others, but the taste made up for that, even if I do say so myself.
I would recommend making a big trifle in stages, its better to allow each layer to set, and it just seems easier that way.
Several people I know claim not to like trifle, but they have liked mine. Today I was very impressed with the speed at which the family wholeheartedly enjoyed it. I don't expect the remains will last long.
Thank you for reading,
Caroline x
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