and now for the GIVEAWAY…

Every Summer, we all head down to our beach house to escape the city and enjoy the beautiful serenity of the Mornington Peninsula. A tradition I started a few years ago, when Little Miss Cherry was in my belly, was making a Summer Berry Trifle. In fact, my first blog post was images of my first ever attempt. It’s such a simple desert to make and always seems to be a hit with everyone. My trifle made an appearance at my Baby Shower and was even reinvented for Mum’s Black Leather Leopard-skin Vodka Party into a  Black Forest version with Morello cherries and chocolate custard.

Cherry absolutely loves cherries! Who doesn’t? Before we got started, we took a trip down to a local cherry and strawberry farm to collect fresh fruit for our trifle.

 Mumma’s little helper

Chop chop

We used about 1kg of these mega juicy and super sweet strawberries sliced into halves. A lot I know, but we always make a mega-super-duper-sized one to fill our 12 liter tulip vase.

I like to use store bought jam sponge scrolls cut into 1cm slices. For this recipe, I use one log per layer and today, we’re making two.

I pack the bottom of our clear bowl with an entire log, nice and tight, pressing the spirals up the sides.

  Next, I soak the sponges with a generous splash of Creme Sherry. About 1 cup per layer. An alternative to alcohol is apple juice, or if you’re using jarred cherries, use the juice!

Then I throw in a few sliced strawberries and pitted cherries

I like to press the strawberries up against the clear glass

In go those ripe and juicy cherries! You can use any fruit for this recipe but I find berries are best this time of year.

 Then I scoop a layer of jelly. We used 2 packets of Aeroplane Natural Raspberry Jelly.

 Here’s some we prepared earlier

 Now for my favourite part…

I’ve tried many different kinds of custard, even home made, but I find Paul’s brand is the best for this recipe. About 3 cups per layer will do.

 One for you, one for me 😉

Once the custard is poured, I repeat the process with a second layer

 Glug glug

Almost done

My trifle wouldn’t be complete without cherries on top!

Ta-da!

Cover with glad wrap and store in the fridge a few hours before serving. Every time I make this recipe the ingredients and measurements vary slightly. In other words, you can’t go wrong, just make it look pretty!