Your best trifle recipe?

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

Ok, ok, I know trifle doesn't really need a recipe as such, it's just cobbled together, but I've never made a trifle before, just eaten other people's and don't want to cock it up for Xmas day at the in-laws!!

I have so far got some trifle sponges, some sherry, a tin of fruits of the forest (and will get some fresh fruit in too).

I need custard, cream, and jelly, right? Just bog standard Bird's custard? Or posh fresh vanilla-y stuff? Or would that be too runny?

How much sherry?

I slice trifle sponges & them sandwich them together with raspberry jam, sprinkle with drained tinned raspberries or defrosted frozen ones, with a sprinkling of icing sugar to sweeten. A few slugs of either sherry or framboise. Cover with ready made ambrosia custard, cover this with whipped cream, sprinkle with toasted almond flakes.....easy peasy. I never use jelly.

No jelly here either. Nigella does a splendid cherry one in one of her books (domestic goddess maybe?) - is yum, although you do lose the will to live destoning the cherries.

My best trifle recipe involves a cherry panettone, some cherries in kirsch, cherry compote, a home made custard with marsala in it, maybe some cream on top, and some fresh cherries for decoration. Yum!

Soak sponges with amaretto, cover with raspberries, cover that with fresh vanilla custard, then top with whipped cream, then scatter crumbled amaretti biscuits on the top. So EASY, so YUM.

So definitely no jelly then? Don't think my mum uses it in hers actually.

No jelly.

This is how I do mine:

slice a madeira cake and use it to line the trifle dish. Sprinkle with port. Cover the cake with raspberries and more port. Cover the raspberries with more cake - and more port.

Cover in posh vanilla-y custard and leave overnight in the fridge.

Slather whipped cream over the custard.

Sprinkle with flaked almons.

meanwhile, make a syrup from port and sugar then let it cool. Drizzle over the trifle.

almonds

Sorry don't have a recipe, but my mum uses syllabub instead of custard and cream. Nice.

My favourite is a chocolate trifle.

Buy a marble sponge cake, and slice this up to lay on the bottom of your trifle dish. Pour over any of the following, that you happen to have to hand - chocolate liqueur, Tia Maria, Baileys, Kahlua

Take two cartons of ready made custard. Warm them up and into one of them melt some milk chocolate and into one of them melt some white chocolate (quantities up to you but around 100g of chocolate per carton).

Let the custard cool, then pour one carton on top of the sponge and then pour the other one on top.

Finish with a layer of lightly whipped cream, and the sprinkle on top a crushed Cadbury Flake.