Gluten-free Easy Sherry Trifle - so easy & so good
This is such an easy dessert. It can easily be adapted to suit different tastes. You can easily reduce or increase the quantities to make it for more or less people. You can leave out the Sherry if you prefer a non-alcoholic dessert. Or you could use a different type of alcohol. If it is a stronger alcohol though you will probably want to add less.
You can also use different type of fruit. I’ve used raspberries and strawberries here because it is a very typical choice. And also I love them. But you could use orange jelly and add tangerine segments, or cherries or whatever. Well, not quite whatever because some fruit will stop jelly from setting. But provided you are aware of this you can make any sort of trifle you want. Not a fan of soaked cake? Leave the gluten free cake out. Want to add in gluten free chocolate cake instead? You can. Make it your own.
It’s easy to make. You make it the day before. It can feed a crowd. And it stays fine to eat for at least 3 days afterwards. Probably longer. I don’t know. It will all be gone by then.
The jelly I am using here is not vegetarian. It is possible to buy vegetarian gelatin. Agar is a plant based gelatin derived from seaweed and you can often find this type of gelatin in the baking section of many supermarkets. It’s not so easy, at the moment, to find a vegetarian version of the ready flavoured gelatin that I am using here. So that is something to keep in mind.
Gluten-free Easy Sherry Trifle
Yield: Serves 8 - 10
Suitable for: Gluten-free diet
Ingredients:
- ½ (~125g) gluten-free Madeira sponge cake
- raspberry jam
- 2 x 135g packets of strawberry and/or raspberry jelly
- ~300ml cream sherry
- ~300g raspberries and/or strawberries, fresh or frozen
- 500g ready made vanilla custard
- ~250ml fresh cream, at least 30% fat
- 1 heaped tbsp icing sugar, optional
- Hundreds & Thousands sprinkles
Instructions:
Prepare the cake layers
Halve the gluten-free cake. You only need one half for this recipe. If you want you can wrap the other half in baking paper, put into a freezer bag and it will stay good for up to 3 months in the freezer.- Cut the half you are using into two or 3 horizontal slices. Often gluten-free cake is less spongy than ones with gluten so if it seems more crumbly than spongy just cut it in half. Spread a thin layer of raspberry jam on the halves, and stick the half together again. Now cut it vertical into thin (at most 1 cm) slices.
- Place the slices into your trifle bowl and pour 300ml Cream Sherry over the slices.
Make the jelly and add fruit
You can use fresh or frozen fruit. Frozen raspberries can go straight in without thawing. If you’re using frozen strawberries, let them soften just enough to slice. Prepare all your fruit and sprinkle it all over the cake slices.- Make the jelly according to the packet instructions. Pour the jelly over the fruit and cake slices, Don’t worry too much about the order—both the fruit and cake tend to float. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, or overnight, until fully set.
Top with custard, whipped cream and sprinkles
When the jelly has set, spoon the vanilla custard evenly over the top.- For the cream layer, you can use unsweetened whipped cream (traditional for trifle), but I prefer to sweeten it lightly. Add 1 heaped tablespoon of icing sugar to the fresh cream and whisk until softly thickened.
- Spread the whipped cream over the custard and finish with a generous scattering of Hundreds & Thousands. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.
- Note: This trifle can be made 1 - 2 days ahead.
Enjoy!
