Serves: 6
Egg Custard:
600ml milk
1 vanilla pod or 5ml (1 tsp) vanilla extract
3 large egg yolks
45ml (3 tbsp) caster sugar
30ml (2 tbsp) cornflour
Other ingredients:
1 x vanilla sponge cake, cut into blocks
60ml (4 tbsp) sherry, optional
1 punnet strawberries, washed, hulled and sliced in half
1 punnet blueberries, rinsed
250ml (1 cup) cream, lightly whipped
Icing sugar
Method:
- To make the egg custard, heat the milk and vanilla pod in a pot until it just comes to the boil. Beat together the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour in a large mixing bowl. Pour milk over the egg mixture and whisk till smooth. Strain and pour back into pot, whisking to bring to a simmer till thickened and mixture coats the back of a wooden spoon. Set aside to cool.
- To assemble the trifle, place ⅓ of the cake cubes in the bottom of a medium glass bowl. Sprinkle over 20ml of the sherry if using. Top with ⅓ of the berries then pour over ⅓ of the custard. Repeat the layers, reserving some of the berries for decoration, ending with custard. Pour over the cream and refrigerate covered, until serving.
- Before serving, top the cream with remaining berries and dust with icing sugar if desired.
Variations:
- If you prefer you can make the custard using custard powder. To make a custard of medium consistency use 45ml (3tbsp) custard powder and 45ml (3 tbsp) sugar to 500ml (2 cups of milk).
- You can add jelly to the trifle. Make up according to package instructions and for a thicker jelly reduce the water added by 50ml. Pour the jelly over the sponge and fruit. Allow to set before adding another layer.
- For a tropical flavour, replace the berries with 1 large mango, peeled and cubed or a mixture of mango and fresh pineapple, and use rum instead of the sherry.