Christmas Trifle Cake

Serves 8-10 Prep time: 1 hour Cook time: 45 mins + cooling

Ingredients

For the sponge:

• 280g unsalted butter, softened
• 250g caster sugar
• 5 medium free-range eggs
• 280g self-raising flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tbsp milk

For the filling:

• 25ml sweet sherry (optional)
• 250g unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tbsp custard powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g icing sugar
• 100g strawberry jam

To decorate:

• 1 x 450g sheet ready rolled white fondant icing
• 100ml double cream
• 1 tbsp hundreds and thousands
• 8 cocktail cherries

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170oC/150oC (fan)/gas mark 3 and grease and line a deep 23cm cake tin. To make the sponge, add all the sponge ingredients to a large bowl and beat well with an electric mixer, or by hand until you have a smooth batter. Spoon the batter into the lined cake tin, level with a knife, and bake in the centre of the oven for 40-45mins. Once cooked, leave to cool in the tin for 1 hour, then turn out onto a cooling rack.
2. Once the cakes are fully cool cut the cake in half horizontally so you have two sponges and place the top sponge upside down on your serving plate. Using a pastry brush, brush half the sweet sherry over the sponge half if using.
3. To make the custard buttercream, add the softened butter, custard powder, vanilla extract and icing sugar into a large bowl and beat well until smooth.
4. Spread the strawberry jam over the cut side of the bottom sponge, leaving 1 tbsp asidefor later. Then spread the buttercream over the top of the jam to make one thick layer. You can also pipe the buttercream if you prefer. Place the other sponge on top of the buttercream cut-side down and brush the top sponge with the remaining sherry.
5. Spread the remaining jam over the top sponge, then lay the pre-rolled fondant icing over the top. Using a sharp knife, carefully cut out the icing drip shapes in the fondant around the edge of the cake and remove the excess.
6. Beat the double cream in a bowl with an electric whisk until you have soft peaks, then place 8 small dollops around the top outside edge of the cake. You can also pipe the cream if you prefer. Scatter each dollop with a few hundreds and thousands and top each one with a cocktail cherry. Serve immediately.

Credit: wayfair.co.uk

NorthernLife Nov/Dec 23