28 April 2023 , 12:38
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While trifles have been a staple British dessert for centuries, they saw a revival in the 1970s and became every kid's favourite pudding.
But the retro dish has made another comeback in recent years thanks to the Royal Family.
Last June, we saw Jemma Melvin's Lemon Swiss Roll and Amaretti Trifle crowned as the Platinum Jubilee Pudding, but with six layers to make from scratch, it proved complicated for many amateur bakers, and even a ' disaster' for our very own Mirror writer.
So when official recipes were announced to celebrate the King's Coronation on Saturday, May 6, I thought I'd give the trifle dish a try - which comes with just four layers.
Saffron with her massive Coronation Trifle (Saffron Otter)Unlike Queen Elizabeth II's event, Coronation Chicken doesn't feature for the Big Coronation Lunch, and instead the suggested recipes, according to the toolkit website, are a Coronation Quiche, a rack of roast lamb with an Asian-style marinade from chef Ken Hom, while griddled aubergine from Nadiya Hussain is among the list.
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Lastly, the chosen dessert by Michelin-star chef, Adam Handling, deviates from tradition too, with a fresh and zingy strawberry and ginger trifle.
I'm no baker and have never made a trifle before, but I thought I'd put it to the test as a big fan of the flavour combination.
After following the recipe and seeing how it tastes, I can confirm that it is worth the huge effort as a centrepiece to your Coronation bash buffet.
I was expecting the recipe to be quite difficult to follow, given it lists 19 different ingredients, but it was relatively simple.
However when it gets to the layering, that can be fiddly and because you need everything to cool and set, it actually took me hours.
Ingredients
You'll need the following ingredients, which are listed to serve 8:
Yorkshire Parkin
- 150g unsalted butter40g black treacle
- 150g golden syrup
- 150g soft brown sugar
- 150g self-raising flour
- 115g oats
- 2 whole eggs
- 8g ginger, ground
- 4g nutmeg, ground
- 4g mixed spice
It added up to a shocking £25... (Saffron Otter)Strawberry jelly
- 350g strawberries, blended
- 125g caster sugar
- 6 gelatine leaves
Ginger custard
- 8 egg yolks
- 130g caster sugar
- 100g plain flour
- 500ml whole milk
- 1tsp ginger, ground
Fresh cream
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- 300g double cream, cold
- 50g icing sugar
- 1 vanilla pod, scraped
I'll be making the Yorkshire Parkin again (Saffron Otter)I spent a whopping £25 on the shopping list, which seems excessive when you can probably buy a professional dessert for that price.
Although, it will be cheaper for those who already have flour and eggs along with other baking items in the cupboard.
I also cheated with the jelly, and instead of buying leaves, I just bought two packets of Hartley's Strawberry Jelly for £1 each.
Method
To start, you'd usually make some sort of sponge for a trifle, but for this recipe, it's a Yorkshire Parkin - which tastes similar to a Jamaican Ginger Cake.
This was really simple to make, and I'd definitely try to make this again separately for another time.
Firstly, melt the butter, syrups and brown sugar in a saucepan - although I may have got a bit carried away with the treacle here.
Adam says to place all the dry ingredients into a mixer and combine on a low speed, however, I did this by hand.
The recipe was quite straightforward (Saffron Otter)Next, add the wet ingredients and mix until incorporated. Finish with the eggs and beat for five minutes, until 'smooth and pale', Adam says, however, my mix was quite dark.
Then place the mixture into a lined cake tin and put it in the oven at 160°C. The recipe says to bake for 25 minutes but I had to keep checking it every five minutes after then as it wasn't done.
I eventually took it out of the oven after around 35-40 minutes.
It took longer than the listed 25 minutes to bake (Saffron Otter)While that was baking, I moved on to the jelly, which was super easy to do.
Just add boiling water over the jelly squares in a bowl before topping up with cold water.
Seeing as Adam blended some strawberries for his jelly, I did the same and added them on top and left it to one side to set.
Separating the eggs for the custard was fiddly, but worth it in the end (Saffron Otter)For the custard, which tasted amazing, you had to place the milk and ginger into a saucepan and heat until just before it reached the boil.
It then became pretty messy as you have to separate the egg yolk from the white eight times. Once you've done that, whisk them together with sugar, add flour, then add the milk.
Once together in a saucepan on a low heat, whisk for around five minutes until it thickens.
I wasn't sure I'd done this correctly but it thickened eventually.
The ginger custard being heated in the pan (Saffron Otter)Adam then suggests cooling it down in a tray covered with greaseproof paper.
Once the Parkin had cooled, I started the layering process.
I broke it up into chunks and squished it into the bottom of my classy trifle dish - which is actually more than 60 years old.
The bowl was loaned to me by my mum's friend, who was gifted it as a wedding present.
So alongside making sure I was following the instructions properly, I was also making sure I handled the dish like my life depended on it.
The layering then commenced... (Saffron Otter)I then decorated the outside of the glass with sliced strawberries and transferred the jelly on top to make my second layer.
Call me dramatic but by this point, I was pretty exhausted by it all, so I left it overnight to fully set in the fridge, along with the custard.
The next morning, I turned my hand to the vanilla cream to go on top for the final layer.
The recipe says to place the icing sugar in a bowl and then scrape the vanilla seeds out of the pod and add.
I've never used fresh vanilla before but thought I'd be fancy given the occasion.
You then have to whip the cream into stiff peaks, which made me think my arm was about to fall off.
The second layer - strawberry jelly (Saffron Otter)Final layering
Now it's time to add the final layers.
I already had two layers in place, so next, I needed to add my ginger custard.
Adam then suggests transferring the fresh cream into a piping bag for serving, which I didn't have.
I thought I'd create a make-shift piping bag using a plastic food bag and cutting a hole at one corner, but this plan failed, with it coming out looking like mini bananas.
Add the custard... (Saffron Otter)
... before topping it off with fresh vanilla cream (Saffron Otter)I somehow manage to spoon the cream on top instead, creating cloud-like dollops.
As seen with Adam's pristine version, he garnished the cream with a few pistachio nuts for extra decoration.
I didn't have any in, so shaved an almond on top to create a dusting of nutty flavour.
Verdict
Overall, I thought it turned out pretty well.
The mixing and baking process took around two hours, although I admit I had no idea what I was doing, so I'd say it would be a lot quicker for more experienced bakers.
The cream and layering process took around another 30 minutes.
While it felt like a long time, I appreciated how it could be done in stages, so it does suit time-strapped parents.
I've never had a trifle with ginger before, and because there is also ginger in the custard, it did pack a punch - which is just how I like it.
The Parkin was nice and sticky which contrasted well with the lighter consistencies of the other layers.
I now have a trifle bigger than the size of my head to finish and no one can complain about that.