MadCookery

I rarely prepare desserts and so I was a bit distressed when I was asked to bring a dessert to our family’s Christmas celebration this year.  I wasn’t sure what to bring, but I did now that I wanted it to be a traditional Christmas dessert, not a pie, delicious with a beautiful presentation, and, due to my schedule, quick to make.  After some thought and research, I decided on my take on a traditional English Trifle.Traditionally Trifles are made with alcohol, but due to the number of very young children that would be at the party I decided against using it and instead made a thinner pudding layer than is traditionally used.  Another limitation was that, due to severe allergies in a member of the family I was unable to use any form of nuts.  I included optional steps at in the recipe to reintroduce these ingredients if desired.To facilitate multiple serving sizes I decided to make multiple cake, fruit, and sauce layers.  I also took a couple of short cuts to decrease the preparation time.  The first is that I purchased a large store bought Angel Food cake.  The second is that I used instant pudding mix as a flavoring and thickener rather than make a vanilla custard sauce completely from scratch.  The end result was fantastic.

Ingredients:

• 2 Cups Whipping Cream
• 1/4 Cup heavy Cream
• 1/2 Cup whole milk
• 1.5 3.5oz Packages French Vanilla Instant Pudding mix
• 1 Can Sweetened and Condensed Milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 Package frozen blueberries
• 1 Package frozen blackberries
• 1 Package frozen red raspberries
• 1 Package frozen black raspberries
• 1 large angel food or pound cake torn or cut into 1 inch pieces
• 4 tbls sugar
• Optional: Liqueur, dark rum, bourbon, port, or sweet sherry
• Optional: finely diced almonds

Instructions

Step 1: Make whip cream

1. Add sugar and vanilla extract to a mixing bowl
2. Add 2 Cups of Whip Cream
3. Optional: add 1 tbls of liqueur, liquor, port, or wine being used on the cake layer
4. Whip on high with an electric mixer until peaks are just being formed when the mixer is removed, be careful not to over whip.

Step 2: Make the sauce

1. Add milk, heavy cream, condensed milk, 1/2 of the whipped cream (reserve other half for the final step), and instant pudding mix to a bowl
2. stir until mixed well

Step 3: Build the dessert In a large bowl, clear glass or plastic will give a beautiful result, make layers in the following manner:Layer 1: pieces of angel food cakeLayer 2: a mix of the frozen berriesLayer 3: half of the sauce, spread with a spatula for a nice coatingLayer 4: pieces of angel food cakeLayer 3: a mix of frozen berriesLayer 5: the rest of the sauce, spread with a spatulaLayer 6: The remaining whip cream reserved in step 2, spread to form a even coatOptional Step:  When adding each layer of cake sprinkle with your favorite liqueur, I suggest Orange (Grand Marnier is excellent), dark rum, high quality bourbon, port, or sweet sherry.  A non-alcoholic alternative for this step is to make a syrup of cooked and pureed berries (Strawberry is excellent for this) and sugar.Optional Step: When adding the berries sprinkle with finely diced almonds.Step 4: garnishGarnish the top with some of the remaining berries or sliced almonds if using nuts.Step 5: Rest

1. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in a refrigerator for at least 2-3 hours.
2. Remove from refrigerator and let rest at room temperature approximately half an hour before serving

(Photo credit: laura-s at http://www.everystockphoto.com/)