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Layers of cake, jam, fruit, jelly, custard and whipped cream – What´s not to love?! Trifle is a classic British dessert and such a treat to eat!!!
After sticky toffee pudding, trifle is probably my second favourite British dessert!
This trifle recipes is one of my most popular recipes! Click here for another trifle recipe: A Chocolate Orange Trifle with Bailey´s Irish Cream!
What is a trifle?
Trifle is most commonly served around Christmas and New Year’s time. It´s perfect to serve a crowd of people and is really easy to make!
A classic British trifle is made by layering cake, fruit, custard, and cream. Often, jelly, alcohol, and chocolate are added to it, too.
N.B. for any Americans reading this: Jelly in the UK is what you call jell-o. This recipe also uses jam to sandwich the cake at the bottom of the trifle, which is your jelly. Sorry for the confusion, haha…
Basically – The sky´s the limit when it comes to trifle! The most important thing for a classic British trifle, however, is that it has distinct layers and the bottom sponge layer has been well soaked (by the fruit juices or alcohol)!
As I said, you can find trifle in all sorts of flavour combinations, but this recipe is a very easy classic trifle recipe that I used to make as a child with my mum.
No booze (it had to be kid-friendly, but feel free to add some) and simply layers of sponge, tinned fruit cocktail, raspberry jelly, custard, and whipped cream! Absolutely delicious – a real crowd-pleaser!
How do you make an easy British trifle?
This easy British trifle recipe uses mostly shop-bought ingredients which makes it really quick and easy to make. However, if you are feeling a bit more adventurous and want to give homemade cake, custard or jelly a try, this would be the perfect time to do so! I, for example, used this delicious homemade Swiss Roll Cake for the sponge base of the trifle.
Choose good-quality ingredients…
To make this easy trifle taste as good as it possibly can, I would recommend using good-quality ingredients. If you are in the UK, for the custard, I would recommend using Ambrosia custard – it tastes so much better than the cheaper options! If you want to use homemade custard, check out my baking basics post on How to make Crème Anglaise (Custard) for the recipe!
For the raspberry jelly, I used Hartley´s Jelly.
This easy British trifle is best made in a glass bowl so that you are able to see all the lovely layers! You can prepare the trifle in advance, in fact, it tastes even better when it has been left in the fridge for a day and has fully soaked through!!!
More Christmas Crowd-Pleasing Desserts
Check out some of these other recipes on my blog if you are looking for some more Christmas or New Year´s Eve (or any other celebration!) crowd-pleasing dessert ideas:
- Mary Berry´s Meringue Roulade with Strawberries and Cream
- No-Bake Lemon Cheesecake with a Gingernut Base
- Chocolate Pavlova with Bailey´s Irish Cream
- Chocolate and Nut Baked Alaska (with Italian Meringue)
- Easy Homemade Tiramisu
- Chocolate-Orange Trifle with Bailey´s Irish Cream
- Christmas Snow Cake with Swiss Meringue Buttercream
- Chocolate Yule Log | Bûche de Noel
- Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes (No-Bake)
- 6 Crowd-Pleasing Dessert Recipes
Easy Trifle –
Classic British Dessert
Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 shop-bought (or homemade) Madeira or swiss roll cake
- 4-5 tbsp strawberry or raspberry jam
- 400g tin fruit cocktail
- 1 pack raspberry jelly (e.g. Hartley´s)
- 1 carton (500g) custard (I´d recommend Ambrosia) or 1 quantity of Homemade Custard
- 200ml whipping cream
- 1 square dark chocolate, grated
- fresh fruit (e.g. strawberries), to serve (optional)
YOU WILL ALSO NEED:
- 1 large glass bowl, approx. 3L (this is the one I use)
Method:
- First, prepare the jelly layer of the trifle. Make the jelly according to the packet instructions and leave to cool until almost completely set (If it has set completely it will be a little harder to spread but will still work. If it is too runny it will seep into the fruit and you won´t achieve a distinctive layer).
- For the Madeira cake base, cut the cake into slices, about 0.5-1cm thick. Spread a layer of jam on one slice and sandwich it with another. Repeat this until you have used up all the Madeira. Then tightly pack the jam-cake-sandwiches at the bottom of the bowl and press down gently. This will form the bottom layer of the trifle.
If you are using swiss roll, cut it into 1cm thick slices. Snugly fit the swiss roll around the bottom of the glass bowl letting the cake lining come roughly half-way up the sides of the bowl. You want your guests to be able to see the lovely spirals on the side of the bowl! - Next, you will add the layer of fruit. Pour the tin of fruit cocktail including its juices over the sponge base. The juices will soak into the sponge making it nice and soft.
- For the third layer, you will want to add the raspberry jelly to the bowl. It´s best to pour on the jelly before it has completely set. Then cover with clingfilm and put the bowl into the fridge until the jelly has completely set.
- Once the jelly has completely set, you can pour the custard on top (if using homemade custard, make sure it has cooled to room temperature) of the jelly layer. Then return the bowl to the fridge whilst you prepare the whipped cream.
- For the final layer, simply beat the whipping cream in a bowl with an electric whisk for 2-3 minutes until thick. Gently spread the cream over the custard layer, trying not to mix the layers. It might be easiest to dollop the cream over the custard and then use a palette knife to even it out and close the gaps. If you like, you can fill some of the cream into a piping bag and pipe some rosettes on top to decorate.
- Cover the trifle with clingfilm and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours (the longer the better) so that the layers have time to firm up and your sponge is well soaked.
- Before serving, decorate the trifle with some fresh fruit and some grated dark chocolate.
