A TRIFLING MATTER ....
SUMMER BERRY TRIFLE
For many the best part of the Christmas meal is a large helping of trifle — and not the Christmas pudding. Think layers of soft sponge sprinkled with a little booze, wobbly jelly in different colours, seasonal fruit, smooth custard and thick cream decorated with cherries and nuts layered decoratively in a glass bowl — especially one on a stand because the best part is seeing all those decadent layers before everyone tucks in.
Trifle can be made 12 hours before serving.
Serves 6
Egg Custard:
600ml milk 1 vanilla pod or 5ml (1 tsp) vanilla extract 3 large egg yolks 45ml (3 tbsp) caster sugar 30ml (2 tbsp) cornflour Other ingredients: 1x vanilla sponge cake, cut into blocks 60ml (4 tbsp) sherry, optional 1 punnet strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced in half 1 punnet blueberries, rinsed 250ml (1 cup) cream, lightly whipped Icing sugar
To make the egg custard heat the milk and vanilla pod in a pot until it just comes to the boil. Beat together the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a large mixing bowl. Pour milk over the egg mixture and whisk till smooth. Strain and pour back into pot, whisking to bring to a simmer till thickened and mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon. Set aside to cool. In a medium glass bowl, layer the ingredients by starting with 1/3 of cake cubes in the bottom of the bowl. Sprinkle over 20ml of the sherry if using. Top with 1/3 of the berries then pour over half the custard. Repeat the layers ending with the remaining custard. Top with the remaining cake blocks and sherry. Pour over the cream and refrigerate covered until serving. Be fore serving, top cream with remaining berries and dust with icing sugar if desired.
TIPS
If you prefer you can make the custard using custard powder. Following package instructions and to make a custard of medium consistency use 45ml (3tbsp) custard powder and 45ml (3 tbsp) sugar to 500ml (2 cups of milk).
You can add jelly to the trifle. Make up according to package instruction and for a thicker jelly reduce the water added by 50ml. Pour the jelly over the sponge and fruit. Allow to set before adding another layer.