Black Forest Trifle

You might have already guessed it from the picture, this week, one of the Great British Bake Off themes was Trifle. The other options were Floating Islands or Petits Fours. Seeing that I don’t like custard, floating islands weren’t an option for me, although I did think of swapping the custard for a fruit soup at one point, and petits fours just sounded like a lot of frustration for me. I’ve got sausage fingers, so meticulously decorated mini cakes would have been a massive challenge for me. So was making a trifle by the way. Can you believe that it was my first trifle ever? Scary, huh? Still less daunting than petits fours, I thought, so I tried to come up with a recipe that didn’t involve custard and that was a little different from the traditional English trifle that you can buy literally everywhere. The idea of a Black Forest Trifle was born. Quite fitting seeing that I’m German and love chocolate and cherries in equal measures.

Want to try it? Here’s the recipe for my Black Forest Trifle:

300 ml double cream
1 tin black cherries

Ingredients Cherry Jelly:

5 sheets of gelatine
300 g pitted cherries
300ml cherry juice
100 g cherry jam

Method Cherry Jelly:

1. Soak your gelatine sheets in cold water for about 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, bring your cherries, jam and juice to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Then liquidise in a blender and pour through a sieve. You will have about 600ml once you are done.

3. Add half of your liquidised fruit puree to the gelatine, stir unil the gelatine has completely dissolved and add back into your fruit puree. Set aside.

Ingredients Chocolate Brownies:

225g softened butter
75g cocoa powder
4 eggs
300g caster sugar
4 tbsp milk
100g self-raising flour

Method Chocolate Brownies:

1. Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4 and grease the base of a 13x9in or 33x23cm tin.

2. Whisk the butter, cocoa powder, eggs, sugar, milk and flour to a smooth mix. Spoon into the tin and bake for 30 minutes.

3. Cool on a wire rack and cut into pieces to fit your trifle bowl.

Ingredients Chocolate Mousse:

300g dark chocolate
3 eggs
50g caster sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
300ml thickend double-cream
some grated chocolate for decoration

Method Chocolate Mousse:

1. Melt the chocolate over a bain marie and stir to avoid lumps. Once melted take from heat and set aside.

2. Mix eggs and sugar in a large bowl and whisk for about 5 minutes until you have a pale and thick mixture. Fold in the cooled chocolate and cocoa powder.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk the double cream and gently fold into the chocolate mix using a metal spoon.

How to assemble your Black Forest Trifle:

Now that you’ve finished preparing your ingredients, it’s time to assemble your Black Forest Trifle in a pretty glass bowl that shows off your masterpiece. With trifles, it’s all about the layers, so make sure you create well defined layers that are visible from the outside. I found filling the bowl from the outside to the inside worked best for me..

I layered my trifle as follows: cherry jelly, chocolate brownies, whipped cream, cherry compote (1 tin black cherries), chocolate mousse and whipped cream. I piped little peaks, but you can go for a smooth look or pipe your cream however you like.  Sprinkle your trifle with grated chocolate and decorate with some fresh cherries before serving.

I bought my trifle bowl from The Range. It’s a 15 inch martini glass, which can be used for so many craft and cookery projects that it would have been plain rude not to buy it. It also only cost me £6.99, which I thought was an absolute bargain.

I love styled photo shoots as you can see them on Lucy’s blog Capture by Lucy and I really want to make more of an effort to make my photos look more attractive by using some interesting props, textures and backgrounds, but on this occasion the only props I used were my trifle bowl and some cherries that I scattered around my living room floor. I think it works for this particular recipe, but I can’t wait to go prop shopping for some interesting little objects that will give my photos more character.

If you want to see what other bloggers use to style their blog photos, check out Lucy’s brand new linky: Sunday Prop Shop. For more recipes featuring this week’s GBBO themes, pop over to Mummy Mishaps and The Crazy Kitchen.