This recipe for trifle mess was a side invention from creating a recipe for the Queen’s Jubilee cake. The inspiration for the cake recipe was to enter the Fortnum & Mason Platinum Jubilee cake contest. Unfortunately, my recipe did not get selected, but I was very happy with the two new desserts! From the leftovers of the cake, I made up this dessert to avoid wasting the scraps. I decided to call it trifle mess, a hybrid of trifle and Eton mess.
Of course, one extra addition was a good splash of alcohol. Trifle often has sherry but it’s not my favourite flavour. This time I used Karavan vanilla cognac, which added a nice sweet flavour. There is also a little more work involved to prepare a vanilla custard.
Ingredients
Leftover sponge cake, cranberry jelly, meringue, whipped cream, and pistachio from the Queen’s Jubilee cake
Vanilla Custard
1 tsp (6ml) vanilla bean paste
200 ml whole milk
2 egg yolks
40g caster sugar
15g corn starch
15g unsalted butter
Instructions
Vanilla Custard
Add milk to a large pot and add the vanilla bean paste. Warm gently over low heat, and then let simmer while you prepare the eggs.
In a small bowl, beat together the egg yolks and sugar until the colour becomes a lighter yellow. Whisk in the corn starch.
Heat the milk and vanilla until boiling. Pour 1/3 of the hot milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture. Whisk together then transfer all of the yolk mixture into the pot of milk and vanilla. Bring to a boil, stirring well. The cream should thicken. Finally, remove from heat then mix in the butter. Set aside until cool. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
Preparing the Trifle Mess
Tear the excess chocolate cake into pieces and layer them at the bottom of several small glasses. Add a tsp of Karavan vanilla cognac to each glass.
Next, top this with cranberry jelly, vanilla custard, crushed meringue, and whipped cream. Sprinkle with pistachios. Serve with a small dessert spoon.
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