About this time of the year I get embarrassed when look in my kitchen cupboards and realise the state I let my cupboards get into... so out it all comes as I stand on a chair delving all the way into the back... which is when I find them. Yes, it is the tin of sardines (I don't eat sardines, so heaven alone knows where they have come from) and those delightful jars full of fruit in liqueurs... well it seems such a shame just to dollop cream over them or pour it over ice cream when you can make a lovely cheap cheats trifle and make something special. Anyway, yesterday we had a choir social... I sing in a choir called the Cockleshell Chorus and we are fairly new so we had a bit of a get together yesterday... and at 4 o'clock I remembered I promised to bring a desert, which meant a quick trip to the supermarket and the basics range got raided. You may remember that a few years ago the Sainted Delia published her How to Cheat at Cooking and the furore that engendered but in the words of Shirley Conran, "Life is too short to stuff a mushroom." Cooking from scratch is great but there is no shame in using pre-prepared foods when you are caught short or are in a hurry... and be honest when was the last time you made rough puff pastry from scratch? For me it was doing my Domestic Science O level which I realise is 40 years ago!
From your store cupboard, grab:
A jar of Cherries in Kirsch A handful of flaked almonds At the supermarket you will need to grab the following: A 600 ml tub of double cream A 500 ml tub of custard A packet of chocolate fingerellas A small bar of plain chocolate
Take you trifle bowl which doubtless your mum gave you and is tucked at the back of your crockery cupboard (wash it because a spider will have been in there since you got it out at Easter) and break up the chocolate fingerellas into bite size chunks.
Scoop out the cherries and mix them with your bite size chunks, then add some of the liquid to the mix... NOT all of it as that will just make a soggy alcoholic mess, but just enough for the sponge to soak up. Set the trifle bowl aside.
On a tray scatter your flaked almonds and toast them under a grill until lightly browned - watch them as the oil in the almonds makes them turn very quickly and you don't want burnt offerings.
Take the cream and whip it up in another bowl until it is firm, do not overbeat it as we do not want to make butter but is should be firm enough for you to be able to turn the bowl upside down over your head without the risk of you wearing it!
Take your chocolate and grate it into the cream, fold it in and add more chocolate... and repeat until your cream is evenly speckled with chocolate.
Pour the custard over the top of cherry and sponge mixture.
Take spatula and spread the cream on top of the custard, start from the middle and work outwards.
Pop it into the fridge. Before serving, scatter the toasted almonds on top of the trifle and grate some more chocolate on top. Now eat! As you recover from your yummy trifle, take a look at Handmade Monday and see what everyone had been making in the last week.
And this is the trifle song, which might just have been written for this woman of a certain age!
