Happy Easter! Hope you have lots of fun things planned, maybe even dressing up as an Easter bunny?
Crikey! This was a trifle and a half!
Soooooo delicious with its prunes and its orange segments and its custard and its chocolate topping.
But most of all because I used some of the leftover Audrey Hepburn chocolate cake instead of chocolate muffins and that cake is DIVINE. Even if I do burn the top every time I make it.
We scraped out of the burned husk to make a trifle last time and what didn’t get used up, I popped into the freezer. In the back of my mind, I knew it would end up in another trifle at some point…
NAME THAT MOVIE!
I used posh M&S Madagascan Custard but do you know what?
I thought a bog-standard Ambrosia would have been more tasty.
Because of the vast amount of chocolate involved in this dish, I think the custard needs a bit of OOMPH to compete.
The chocolate cream topping was rock-hard when it came out of the fridge, which made it a bit tricky to serve, but I liked it.
It reminded me of the thing all kids of my age used to BEG FOR when it first came out…
Known as Magic Shell in the USA I believe.
Second time I made this trifle I did use Ambrosia and for a little short cut used chocolate squirty cream for the top layer. I was going to pipe it in little rosettes, but Mr Rathbone went a bit BESERK…
Delicious nevertheless!!
Mr R said he was wiped out by this trifle, but “In a good way.” We were surprised that the chocolate topping of the original version solidified and we had to CRACK INTO IT. It reminded us of the bit in Keith Richards’ autobiography when he loses his rag if anyone breaks into a Shepherd’s Pie before he does. Do not bust Keith’s crust!
Jane’s trifle recipe will be going in the forthcoming Cooking the Detectives book as she starred in the episode of Agatha Christie’s Marple I am writing about, The Murder at the Vicarage.
I cannot resist including something here that my food and crime writing chum Orlando Murrin tipped me off to. There used to be a Jane Asher magazine. I could only find one copy online to buy but I snapped it up and whaddya know?! DOUBLE SCREEN-STAR EXCITEMENT – there was a feature involving Jane and Joanna Lumley. So here, just in case you have the skills to do it, is an ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS handbag made from cake. If you DO make this, send me a photo. I will award you some kind of prize!
PLUS there’s an interview with Orlando over on the Dinner and a Movie site as I’ve got a cocktail recipe in his new book Murder Below Deck – it’s all going on!
Skip over here to watch the zoom interview
The internet seems to compress photos I post here so if you want to embark upon this cake project and you find these images difficult to read, just drop me a line via the Contact Page and I will send you scans.
Books packed with star-spangled recipes!
My books are available via Amazon
or directly from me via my brand new Etsy shop (I can sign them if you wish). The cocktail book is only available from here.
Switch to your own country for correct postal costs!
NEWSLETTER SIGN-UPS
That handbag cake looks amazing! I don’t think I have the skills for that, but would love to see anyone else’s attempts. The trifle also looks delish, I could see how it might wipe a person out. 😀
Haha! I am planning to wipe some more people out with one of these in a couple of weeks time! I’m off on holiday with 4 friends and we are taking it in turns to cook. This is my chosen pudding. Let’s see if we are able to go for a walk next day or not! I too could never attempt that handbag cake. I hope someone does though! xx
That sounds wonderful! A holiday with friends where you eat so much pudding you don’t want to move? Sign me up!
Haha! We’ll be on a small island where the only things to do are eat, drink and walk! Can’t wait…