Christmas cake trifle
Serves: 10-12
Prep time: 20 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Martin Poole
Christmas cake trifle
Slices of sherry-soaked Christmas cake make a great base for a trifle, layered up with custard, orange whipped cream and poached winter fruit in a buttery orange caramel
Serves: 10-12
Prep time: 20 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
779Kcal
Fat
46gr
Saturates
28gr
Carbs
83gr
Sugars
69gr
Fibre
4gr
Protein
7gr
Salt
0.4gr
Sarah Akhurst
Our Food Director Sarah is a food obsessive, and spends most of her time scoping out the latest food trends, experimenting in her own kitchen, or making her family wait to eat while she photographs every dinner she makes for the 'gram! A complete Middle Eastern food junkie, she is never far from a good shawarma marinade, a pinch of Aleppo chilli or a sprig of dill
See more of Sarah Akhurst’s recipes
Sarah Akhurst
Our Food Director Sarah is a food obsessive, and spends most of her time scoping out the latest food trends, experimenting in her own kitchen, or making her family wait to eat while she photographs every dinner she makes for the 'gram! A complete Middle Eastern food junkie, she is never far from a good shawarma marinade, a pinch of Aleppo chilli or a sprig of dill
See more of Sarah Akhurst’s recipes
Ingredients
- 3 unpeeled pears, cored and cut into chunky slices
- 6 plums, stoned and quartered
- 120ml sherry* (any type)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 6 fresh figs, quartered
- 500g thick custard
- 800g Christmas cake (without icing), sliced
- 600ml double cream
- zest of 1 orange
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
For the orange caramel sauce
- juice of 3 oranges (about 125ml)
- 125g caster sugar
- 25g butter
- 75ml single cream
Step by step
Get ahead
Prepare a day ahead, adding the last of the fruit and caramel just before serving.
- Put the pears and plums in a large saucepan with half of the sherry and all of the cinnamon. Bring to a simmer and cook for 12-14 minutes, until starting to soften. Add the figs for the final 2 minutes. When all the fruits have softened, remove from the heat and set aside to cool.
- To make the sauce, put the orange juice and caster sugar in a pan and heat gently until the sugar has dissolved. Simmer gently for 18-20 minutes, or until dark golden in colour. Add the butter and single cream and whisk to combine to a caramel sauce, then remove from the heat and leave to cool.
- To build the trifle, first spoon about a quarter of the custard into a trifle bowl then layer in slices of Christmas cake and drizzle with half of the remaining sherry. Reserve 90ml of the orange caramel sauce and then pour the rest over the sherry-poached fruit. Spoon two-thirds of this fruit mixture over the cake in the trifle bowl and then pour in the rest of the sherry. Spoon the remaining custard on top and chill in the fridge for an hour.
- Whip the double cream with the orange zest and vanilla and then spoon and swirl over the custard. Leave to chill for a couple of hours.
-
Remove the trifle from the fridge about 20 minutes before serving. Top with the rest of the fruit and orange caramel sauce to serve.
*Check your chosen sherry is vegetarian, if required.
