Cherry Bakewell Trifle [recipe]

By: Mrs Robot

I realise Christmas was a little while back now, but you will want to save this recipe. Or, possibly, throw any stupid thoughts you might be having of dieting to the wind and make it and eat it. I make a trifle every Christmas, and this year came up with the idea of a cherry bakewell-flavoured one. It's all dead simple, apart from the custard. The custard is the one Katie Stewart uses for her Sherry Trifle in Katie Stewart's Cookery Book, and it is a luxury in itself. Do not be tempted to use a ready-made custard as that won't thicken and set the way this one does.

Ingredients
FOR THE BASE
About 20 boudoir biscuits/sponge fingers
1 jar cherries in juice - I used 'Sweet Valley' Morello cherries from Aldi
A tablespoon of cornflour (or as much as required)
Amaretto

FOR THE CUSTARD
6 egg yolks
2oz/50g caster sugar
2 tsp cornflour
1 pt/600ml double cream
Almond essence

ON TOP
1pt/600ml whipping cream

Get yourself a nice glass bowl - if you don't have one, they're dead cheap in charity shops. Break the boudoir biscuits into roughly quarters, scoop out about half the jar of cherries, dry them a little and chuck them in the bowl with the biscuits. Drizzle a couple of shot glasses of amaretto over the mixture, and toss it about a bit to ensure everything's well mixed, but don't break the biscuits up. Put half the juice from the jar into a saucepan, mix in the cornflour, and heat it to make a thick jammy sauce. Drizzle evenly over the biscuits and cherries.

Note: if your bowl is big, you might want to use larger quantities of the above, if it's small you might want to use smaller. This bit of the 'recipe' is easy to vary.

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour together. Heat the double cream in a pan then, when it's very hot, gradually stir it into the egg mixture. Whack it all back in the pan and heat it gently until it thickens, being careful not to boil it or heat it too fast or it'll scramble. Once it's thick, leave it to cool a lot, then add about 1/4 teaspoon of almond essence - don't add too much or the almond will crush the delicious taste of eggs and cream. Pour the cooled custard into the glass bowl on top of the biscuit mixture. If it went a bit lumpy, do this through a sieve.

Note: if you have a small bowl, you might not want to use all the custard (or all the cream in the next stage). Save it in the fridge to have with something like an apple crumble or steamed pudding in a couple of days' time; you can warm the custard gently.

Chill the filled bowl. When it's properly cold, whip up the whipping cream, pipe it on top, and decorate with a few more cherries.

And that's it. Dead easy to make, tastes like paradise in a bowl.