Trifle cheesecake

Trifle or cheesecake?  Surely, one of the toughest decisions the dessert menu can pose.  Well, fret no more because nature has found a solution: trifle cheesecake.  All the flavour and texture of cheesecake with all the bells and whistles of trifle.

As soon as I saw this recipe in the BBC Good Food Christmas magazine I knew it was what we’d be eating after Christmas lunch.  If I was in a romcom, I could tell the BBC they had me at “trifle cheesecake”.

Christmas would be much more drab without sprinkles:

When you think about it, some cheesecakes already have a thick fruity layer on top but more of a set coulis than jelly.  The jelly works really well and lightens the whole dessert.  It was definitely a crowd pleaser.

I thought I had lined my tin pretty thoroughly, and also thought I had spread out the cheesecake layer to close off any holes.  Wrong.  That liquid jelly is a terror and I say this to prepare you for the likelihood of leakage.  Take precautions in advance – lots of kitchen paper under the tin will prevent it looking like a jelly massacre took place shortly before you opened the fridge door.  Also have a spare packet of jelly to make up for the jelly lost in leakage; it looks a bit weird if your raspberries are left poking out the top! (Not a sentence I ever thought I’d type)

Apologies for the poor quality photos; the light wasn’t great and, by this point in events, I had roast potato-fuelled inertia.  In other words....a typical Christmas!  Hope you all had a good one!

Ingredients

For the base:

250g digestive biscuits
100g unsalted butter

For the cheesecake layer:

3 gelatine leaves
3 tablespoons Bird’s custard powder
200ml milk
100ml double cream
900g cream cheese – I used Philadelphia
200g golden caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the jelly:

1 x 135g pack raspberry jelly cubes (You might want a spare pack on standby, should you lose jelly to leakages – I did!)
175g raspberries

For the cream:

300ml double cream
Cadbury’s Flake
Sprinkles of your choice

Method

Line a 23cm round springform tin with foil or clingfilm.  It needs to be completely lined.  Also wrap the outside of the tin with foil – because the chances are the jelly will leak!  If you’re a pessimist (I am) then place some kitchen paper under the tin inside the foil as it soaks up any leaks.

In a food processor blitz together the digestive biscuits and butter (no need to melt) until it resembles wet sand.

Press the biscuits crumbs into the base of the prepared tin and refrigerate.

Now make the custard for the cheesecake layer: place the gelatine leaves into a bowl of cold water.  Put to one side.

Spoon the custard powder into a bowl.

Pour the milk and cream into a saucepan and then take three or four tablespoons of this to stir into the custard powder and make a thick paste.

Heat the milk and cream in the saucepan until almost at boiling point.

Pour over the custard paste and stir to ensure no lumps.

Return to the saucepan and heat, stirring all the time, until the custard thickens.

Remove from the heat.

Squeeze all the water from the gelatine leaves and whisk into the warm custard.

Pour into a bowl and press clingfilm onto the surface to stop a skin forming.

Leave to cool.

When it is cool, you can make the cheesecake layer: beat together the cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth and well combined.

Stir the custard to loosen it a bit, and then beat into the cheesecake mix.

Spoon over the biscuit base and return to the refrigerator for 4 hours.

Now make the jelly layer: Make half the packet of jelly and leave, in the jug to cool for 30 minutes or so.

Pour over the cheesecake and place the raspberries in the jelly.  At this point, they won’t be covered.  There might be some jelly leakage at this point but if you have prepared your tin adequately it shouldn’t cause any fridge-carnage!

Refrigerate for an hour.

Make up the remaining half pack of jelly and pour over the raspberries.

Refrigerate for an hour or until the jelly is totally set.

Whip up the cream and pipe over the jelly on top of the trifle.

Sprinkle over crushed Flake or almonds, or any sugar decoration you have.

Remove from the refrigerator about 10 minutes before you wish to serve.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Trifle sponge cake

 

Recently I made a trifle and it dawned on me that, with a bit of tweaking as to the order of construction you could make trifle cake.  And here it is!  It may sound immodest (OK, definitely immodest!) but I consider this my masterpiece; so often I am disappointed with my final product as it doesn’t match the perfection I pictured in my mind.  This one exceeded my wildest hopes!

Mr CC is very hands off re cooking and is totally happy to go along with whatever I wish to make, however I wish to make it – with one big exception: trifle.  The look on his face when I once served him trifle without jelly in it now forms the Oxford English Dictionary’s definition of “disgust”. 

The look on his face when I used posh fresh custard rather than Bird’s...well, let’s just say that I’m amazed I ever made it to becoming Mrs CC!

This cake really is, barring the homemade sponge, comprised of trifle ingredients of the 1970s i.e. the decade of my (and Mr CC’s) youth.  Tinned fruit, packet jelly, Bird’s custard and whipped cream.  Happy days.

In order for everything to set make the sponge two days before you wish to serve the cake. 

Leave it overnight to firm up and then, one day before serving slice it into three, place a layer in the tin and add the custard.  Place another layer of sponge on top then back in the fridge to set. 

A little later pour some jelly on to the sponge and then refrigerate until set.

Then add the tinned fruit and the rest of the jelly, top with the remaining sponge and – you’ve guessed it - back into the fridge to set. 

On the day of serving add the whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles.  Easy enough, but it does require planning.  I only say this so no one tries to make the cake in one day and then get cross that I didn’t point out the timescale involved!

Slice of trifle anyone?

Ingredients

For the cake:
250g unsalted butter, at room temperature
220g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
80ml milk
300g self raising flour

For the filling:
1 pint of powdered custard – made up as per the instructions on the pot (you can’t use fresh custard as it won’t set and hold its shape like Bird’s)
1 tin of fruit cocktail (in fruit juice, not syrup)
1 packet of jelly – made up as per the instructions on the packet

To decorate: whipped cream and flaked chocolate

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

Line the base of a 20cm springform deep baking tin with baking paper.

Start by making the sponge 2 days before you wish to serve the cake: Beat together the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy. Don’t skimp on this stage as this is when you get lots of lovely air into your sponge.

Beat in the eggs gradually, add some of the flour if it looks like it might curdle.

Beat in the milk.

Stir in the flour until the mixture is smooth and well combined.

Spoon into the prepared tin and level the surface.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the sponge comes out clean. Another good sign is if the sponge is just pulling away from the edge of the tin.

Leave to cool in the tin for about 20 minutes before turning out and leaving to cool completely on a wire rack.

Store the cake in an airtight tin overnight – this will firm the sponge and make it easier to carve.

One day before serving: Slice the sponge cake into three even layers.

Line the springform tin you baked the cake in with clingfilm, then wrap the outside in foil. This is so no jelly or custard can escape while it’s setting.  I have an adjustable cake ring so used that – but it’s important to get a tight fit around the sponge.  Also, ensure that the foil (or baking paper) comes up above the height of the tin – this is a tall cake.

Sit the bottom disc of sponge in the bottom of the lined tin.

Now make a pint of custard as per the instructions on the custard pot.  Don’t use fresh custard as it won’t set firm enough to support the cake.

Allow the custard to cool a little but not so much that it sets.

Pour the custard onto the sponge base and level the surface.

Press  the middle disc of sponge onto the top; doing this now will prevent a skin forming.

Refrigerate for about 2-4 hours or until the custard is very firm.

Now make the jelly per the packet instructions.  Leave to cool as you don’t want to upset the set custard.

Remove the cake from the fridge and pour over just enough jelly to soak into the sponge and saturate it – you know when it’s enough as the liquid jelly will start to pool on the sponge.

Put back in the fridge – once this firms up it will act as a seal and ensure that the rest of the jelly sets around the fruit.

Tip out the contents of a tin of fruit cocktail into a sieve, you don’t need the juice.

Spoon the fruit onto the top sponge disc and spread out into an even layer.

Pour the remaining cooled jelly over the fruit.

Gently place the remaining disc of sponge on top and loosely cover the tin with clingfilm.  (You want to put the remaining sponge on now as the jelly will set against it and hold all the layers in place)

Place in the fridge and leave to set – this will take several hours and is best left overnight.

On the day of serving decorate with whipped cream and chocolate.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

Eat.

Trifle

Trifle is something that people seem to have got a little snobby about over the past few years. I’m not sure why as it’s heavenly! As long as you follow the basic components it also gives you great freedom of choice as to what you actually put in it.

Consequently, I’m not going to provide a recipe because it depends on what fruit is in season and what size bowl you’re going to use. I will however, tell you what my trifle included! I made lots and put some in my lovely crystal bowl (my January mega-bargain, if you recall) and made some in individual glasses:

Every trifle must have a spongy bottom (I think I must be a trifle!) Many people use swiss roll for this but I find that can make the overall dish too sweet so I made a Victoria sponge – the one I used for my Giant Madeleine – and cut that up. When served it almost gives it a summer pudding look, but with the bonus of custard and cream!

For the fruit layer I bought one box each of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries. As the berries were tart I sprinkled a teaspoon of caster sugar over them to sweeten them up. Scatter these over the sponge layer and it already starts to look good!

Now we come to the ‘hot potato’ issue of trifle making: to jelly or not to jelly? I wouldn’t myself, but I was making this trifle for Mr CC, and the CCM and CCD all of whom like a bit of jelly. I used Rowntrees jelly cubes and made it up according to the packet instructions before pouring it over the fruit. It is quite satisfying to watch it seep into the sponge.

At this point refrigerate the bowl until the jelly has set. Now the custard layer. Use whichever custard you prefer – some like a thick yellow Bird’s custard but I find this a little plastic so bought good quality premade custard and beat some mascarpone cheese into it to thicken it. This is my top tip - custard and mascarpone is divine!

On top of this you only need some whipped cream and you’re done! Decorate with flaked almonds or chocolate or fruit – it’s up to you. As a nod to Valentine’s day I used some tiny sugar hearts.

Make sure you listen out for that terrific squelch noise that the first spoonful – and only the first spoonful – makes out of the serving bowl, then tuck into to English food at its finest!

Trifle

There are certain staple foodstuffs one must always have at Christmas and trifle is one of them. I think many of us dismiss trifle because we have had bad experiences of shop bought atrocities with an almost concrete jelly and fruit layer.

A good trifle should not contain jelly. The eating experience should be soft and juicy with a lovely mix of sponge, fruit, custard and cream. I used my final swiss roll to provide the trifle’s base.

Here is my pictorial masterclass to trifle making! Step one - have a fruit layer so tempting that you forget it’s good for you:


The fruit should sit heavily on the sponge base so as to ensure there are no pockets of emptiness; these will only limit the amount of custard and cream you can wedge into the bowl:


Step two - add a creamy custard layer so naughty you feel 4 pounds heavier just looking at it:


Step three – add whipped cream and a healthy, understated decoration (ahem):


The finished trifle should be a visual treat as well as a tasty one!


However gorgeous your trifle, sadly, it will always look messy in the bowl:



Ingredients:
These quantities made me a huge trifle (my bowl was approx 30cm tall and 25cm across), vary them according to the size of your bowl:
1 swiss roll – for the recipe click here
1 kilo of washed assorted fruit – I used raspberries, blackberries and strawberries
1 litre of ready made fresh custard
500g mascarpone
600ml double cream
2 Cadbury flakes

How to make:

- Cut the swiss roll into approximately 1.5cm slices.
- Line the bottom of the bowl with the swiss roll.
- Mix the fruit together and place on top of the swiss roll. Push down gently on the fruit to compact it a bit.
- Whisk together the custard and mascarpone until smooth and creamy. Whatever amount you make, remember that the volume of custard must always be twice the weight of the mascarpone.
- Spread the custard mix over the fruit. It will sink into any crevices in the fruit.
- Whip the cream until you have soft peaks and spread over the custard layer.
- Decorate as required – I used strawberries and crushed flake.
- Refrigerate until required.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.