I brought a huge trifle bowl a few years ago and STILL hadn’t used it.
Then it got me thinking, I really should use it before it gathers even more dust. I really wanted to make a brownie trifle but seen as I was going to make this for a family get together and I have a lot of family who tend not too like much chocolate I had to scrap that idea.
My next option was surfing through Pinterest to inspire me and I definitely didn’t want a ‘standard’ English trifle. So no chocolate, no English trifle, it wasn’t too tricky as there are so many amazing recipes out there but I then seen recipes for Gingerbread trifle and I thought that’s it!, I want to make that. A lot of my family really liked the sticky ginger cake I made a few years ago, at least I knew that the cake would be a successful even if the trifle was a disaster. Gingerbread trifles seemed to be made mainly at Christmas time, I know very wrong season to be making it in Spring but this didn’t bother me. Some of these trifles also had apples in but I didn’t include this. Mine was layered with rich, gooey, caramel sauce, whipped cream and custard. Yes, a very indulgent and yummy recipe.
This trifle is huge! so it’s best to make it when there is a lot of people coming, or you can just keep eating it yourself as it’s really yummy! However it just depends on the size of your trifle bowl, the one I used is 19x25cm (3L). I had 12 people round and there was still plenty left. I do have a smaller sized on which is 14x17cm (1.2L) and I would just half the recipe but still make the same sized cake as it’s just too yummy to make a small one!
I wasn’t very impressed with the layering and the looks of it personally, I found my layers didn’t come out as defined as other trifles I had seen, which was a bit of a bummer but actually I was really appreciative with the lovely comments I received from everyone who ate it, they really liked it. Which is what matters really. I actually think it was due to the fact there was double cream, caramel sauce, ginger nut biscuits and custard (talk about fattening lol) so it has a lot of flavours that people love. The taste of the ginger cake is there but it does slightly get overshadowed with the other ingredients. I did give my ginger cake extra ginger flavour to make sure that it does taste more gingery.
- Saucepan ingredients
- 125g – butter (salted or unsalted doesn’t matter)
- 125g – light muscovado sugar
- 85g – golden syrup
- 85g – black treacle
- 200ml – milk
- 3 – pieces stem ginger (I used 21/2) finely chopped
- 1 tbsp – ginger syrup from the stem ginger jar
- Other ingredients
- 250g – self raising flour
- 1 tsp – bicarbonate of soda
- 11/2 tsp – ground ginger (I used 1tsp)
- 1 tsp – cinnamon
- 2 – eggs (lightly beat them – it didn’t specify what size but I used large that’s the only ones I had but I think medium would be fine.)
- For the caramel
- 1/2 cup – double cream at room temperature (you just need to buy a small pot)
- 1 cup – sugar (I used normal granulated sugar)
- 60g – butter
- 1/4 cup – water
- 500g - Fresh custard (from the fridge)
- 600ml - Double Cream
- 8-10 - Gingernut biscuits (optional)
- Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 160°C and grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.
- 2. Place all the saucepan ingredients in the saucepan: butter, sugar, syrup, treacle, stem ginger, ginger syrup and milk.
- 3. Place the saucepan over a gentle heat until the ingredients have combined, stirring occasionally.
- 4. Once the ingredients are all combined, remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes, I opened a window and let it cool.
- 5. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ground ginger and cinnamon into a large bowl. It is important to use a large bowl as the mixture will swell when the wet ingredients are added.
- 6. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add the beaten eggs. Gradually begin to combine the eggs and flour then start to add the contents of the saucepan slowly, folding the flour in as you go.
- 7. Once the ingredients have are mixed together pour the cake batter into the prepared loaf tin. Don’t worry if there are a few small lumps in the mixture, but there shouldn’t be any large lumps remaining.
- 8. Bake for approximately 40-45 minutes until the cake is risen and a dark golden brown colour. Test to see if the cake is cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre and checking if it comes out clean.
- 9. Remove from the oven and prick all over with a skewer. Brush the top with a little more ginger syrup from the stem ginger jar or some golden syrup if you aren’t using the stem ginger. I used a bit of both as I’m greedy.
- 10. Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- 1. In a non-stick pan add sugar and water, let it cook on medium heat until the color turns golden brown(try not to let it burn for a lighter caramel keep an eye on it). When the color changes swirl the pan so the caramel cook evenly.
- 2. Turn of heat. Add the butter and whisk until butter dissolves.
- 3. Add the cream while whisking, (careful, it will splash a bit) then add pinch of salt.
- 4. Let it cool
- 1. In a stand mixer whip the cream with (optional sugar and vanilla) until it's holding it's shape.
- 1. Please make sure that the cake and the caramel sauce is completely cool before starting.
- 2. Slice gingerbread into 10 equal thickness, then each slice into smaller slices. Line bottom of trifle bowl with smaller sliced gingerbread and trim to fit if needed. Then spoon custard over gingerbread, followed by caramel sauce, whipped cream and crushed ginger nut biscuits. Repeat process until it's finished. To finish off top with grated chocolate and crushed ginger biscuits.
