Video guide to making a red, white and blue trifle
Desserts really don't get more British than trifle and this is the most patriotic of them all. Packed with delicious fruit, it's a red, white and blue trifle. It looks great, it tastes amazing and will be the perfect centrepiece for any table.
Make the trifle base
Now this trifle actually has five layers; you've got the base, the jelly, the custard, the fruit and the cream, and that's exactly how we're going to make it. So, to start with, you're going to need a large glass bowl and I'm going to start with the base. I've got Madeira cake here, which I've cut into 1.5cm slices and I'm just going to fan it round the base, making it look quite pretty. Take that all the way round, covering the bottom.
So now I'm going to add three to four tablespoons of sloe gin, but you could also use cassis as well. I've got 400g of blueberries and I'm going to sprinkle two thirds over the base and I want to keep the rest back for decoration at the end because they look really pretty.
Make the jelly
OK, so I've got 600ml of blueberry juice, heated, and to that, I'm going to add five sheets of gelatine, which I've been soaking for around five minutes. Now, before I add them, what I'm going to do is gently squeeze out any excess water. Then I'm going to stir them until they're completely dissolved. Once they're dissolved, I'm going to add it to my jug and once it's cooled, I'm then going to transfer it into the base of my trifle. That's going to go into the fridge for three hours, until it's completely set.
Whip up the custard
So my jelly's set beautifully, now on to the custard. Now, I've used two 70g packets of custard with 700ml of boiling water, that's just over a pint, and I stirred to dissolve. I've allowed this to cool completely because I'm going to pour it over my jelly. Now, to finish off the custard, I'm going to add 50ml of cream and then I'm going to add the seeds of a vanilla pod. So I'm going to cut that in half, slice it down the middle, open it up and then scrape all those lovely seeds out.
Adding the cream and the vanilla to the custard really makes it something special and taste fantastic. So that's mixed in beautifully so I'm going to gently pour it over the jelly. So that's going to go back in the fridge for 30 minutes, until the custard's set.
Layer the berries
My custard has set beautifully so now it's on to the fruit layer. I've got 450g of raspberries and 400g of strawberries and what I've done, I've separated 150g of each, because I'm going to blitz it up and make a fruit puree, which will be delicious. So I'm going to empty it into the food processor and I'm going to add one tablespoon of sugar and give that a blitz.
So that's mixed beautifully so now I'm going to layer the fruit onto the custard, carefully. I've cut the strawberries into quarters, just so they're bite-sized pieces. Just going to sprinkle them evenly over the top. And that's looking really luxurious. So now I'm going to pour over my puree.
Top with a layer of cream
Now for the final layer, the cream, and you want a soft whip with your cream, which I have here, and I'm going to spoon this on top. It's nice to have some lovely soft peaks on top, it makes it look really pretty. And the final touch to this red, white and blue trifle is of course the blueberries that I kept back from a little bit earlier. So I'm going to sprinkle those on top to add a little bit of colour. You can also use other types of soft fruit, like blackberries or blackcurrants.
So that looks fantastic, a real British treat, red, white and blue trifle.