Without fail a trifle always makes it onto our table on Boxing day and when Hartley’s sent me their new flavour jelly I just couldn’t pass up on making a jolly jelly Black Cherry Trifle. I love love trifle, it is the best of everything that I like; cake, custard, cream and that childhood favourite jelly and a little fruit thrown in for good measure. And it can be adapted in so many ways. I followed the recipe that Hartley’s sent me but will add some extra tips as to how you can make the trifle your own using your favourite ingredients.

I usually make a huge trifle in a beautiful bowl but I may be making individual ones in jam jars this year as on trend.

Incidently, the black cherry jelly went down a storm, it strangely tastes almondy too and we all really liked it very much.

Black Cherry Trifle Recipe

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Black Cherry Trifle

Prep time:  3 hours

Total time:  3 hours

Serves: 8

Ingredients

• Sugar
• Madeira cake
• Hartley's Black Cherry Jelly
• 1 pint of water
• 300g raspberries
• 1 jar of raspberry jam
• Homemade custard (or cheat and buy ready made)
• Double cream or a can of whipped cream
• 1 lemon

Instructions

1. Make the jelly according to the instructions and leave in the fridge to set
2. Wipe a wedge of lemon around the edge of a glass dish
3. Dip the dish into sugar moving it around until the rim is covered in sugar, set to one side.
4. Add half a jar of the jam in a saucepan along with the raspberries and heat gently for 5-10 minutes.Then leave to cool.
5. When the jelly is set cut the Madeira cake into 1 cm slices are place at the bottom of the dish.
6. Spoon the raspberry syrup over the cake.
7. Then spoon a layer of jelly into the dishes.
8. Top with custard.
9. Top with whipped cream and decorate with fresh raspberries, chocolate, nuts or a simple bright red cherry!
10. Chill until ready to serve.

Notes

Jazz this up with a dash of cherry liqueur in the jam & add morello cherries instead of raspberries. Top the trifle with curls of chocolate.

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So, what will I be doing for our trifle this year?

• Well, I always use either a Madeira cake or swiss roll slices to line the dish first and this year we are having a raspberry swiss roll.
• I give the cake a generous soaking of sherry, this year I am using Marsala wine which is a favourite of mine.
• Next I will  sprinkle raspberries and strawberries over the cake. This will be topped with unset jelly because I love it soaked into the cake and the fruit encased in it.
• Once the jelly is set I will top with ready made custard, although I like a thicker and more set custard time is always short, and this is the quickest way of getting it done.
• To finish I whip double cream until it is holding soft peaks and spread over the custard.
• A sprinkling of chocolate flakes will finish the trifle off.

Other Suggestions:

• Use a chocolate custard instead. This would go well with morello cherries & then you could decorate the trifle with chocolate dipped cherries.
• Soak the cake with amaretto or Frangelico and top the trifle with toasted almonds or hazelnuts.
• For a fresh fruit alternative use a tin of fruit cocktail instead.
• Use amaretti biscuits instead of cake
• Finish your trifle off with meringue peaks and blow torch them to a light brown colour.
• Little silver balls and a sprinkling of edible glitter adds a very festive finish to a trifle.
• Note don’t overfill your dishes like I have…you may want a generous portion of trifle but you won’t want the sticky mess it leaves behind!

Yum, my mouth is watering just thinking about it…only a few more days to go! Yippee!!