Trifle Recipe | Trifle Pudding | Fruit Trifle

Sweet, vibrant, and delicious. This easy and tasty trifle recipe (a.k.a trifle pudding or fruit trifle) is the perfect dessert to brighten up your dinner table. It is made with mixed fruits, an eggless sponge, and whipped cream. Make this mouth-watering fruit trifle recipe in 30 minutes and serve it chilled.

About This Trifle Recipe

Trifle pudding is a stunning dessert choice as it is bright, colorful, and delicious. It is also very easy to make and is perfect if you have leftover sponge cake. Plus you only need 5 ingredients to make it!

This fun layered dessert is English and it is traditionally made with fruit, alcohol-soaked sponge cake, and custard. The great thing about trifle pudding it can be made in so many different ways to suit your taste. My recipe is alcohol-free and includes custard, whipped cream, and fruits such as pomegranates, bananas, apples, and fresh figs.

Trifle was the first dessert I learned how to make in my cooking school. Before then, I never knew that this pudding existed. The flavors and textures were superb so it soon became a favorite.

The first time I made a trifle for my parents at home, I bought the sponge cake from a bakery but now I make the Sponge Cake from scratch at home and it tastes so much better. To this day this famous English dessert is still a favorite with my family and it has also been requested by some of our readers.

What are the layers of a trifle?

A trifle is a layered colorful dessert that is pleasing to the eye as well as the palate. It consists of various layers and they are:

1. Vanilla cake or Sponge Cake cubes
2. Custard
3. Jelly
4. Whipped cream
5. Mixed fruits

In my recipe, except for the fruit jelly all the layers are there. I did not add jelly as the ready-made jelly packs contain gelatin. And if I have to make any fruit jelly at home with agar agar, it will take a lot of time. So I skipped the jelly.

If you can get the ready vegetarian jelly pack, then you can make the jelly a day before and then use it. You can also set the jelly liquid in the pudding itself. Though this way, making the pudding will take time as you will need to refrigerate it for the jelly to set.

Trifle pudding makes for an excellent dessert at parties. It is quite easy to assemble, chill and then serve. You can also make individual portions of the layers in dessert glasses and bowls. This is a kid-friendly recipe as I have not used sherry or any other alcohol.

How to Make Trifle

This fruit trifle recipe has the following four steps:

• Step 1 – Make custard
• Step 2 – Whip cream 
• Step 3 – Prep fruits and cake
• Step 4 – Assemble trifle

So lets begin. Shall we?

Make Custard

1. Warm 3 tablespoons of milk in a microwave or in a small steel bowl on a stovetop. Then add 3 tablespoons of custard powder to the warm milk and set aside.

2. Stir the mixture and make sure the custard powder is fully dissolved in the milk. There should not be any lumps. Set the custard powder slurry or milk aside.

3. Add 1.5 cups of whole milk to another pan or saucepan. Then add 4 tablespoons of sugar or as needed.

Tip: Feel free to add more or less sugar to suit your taste.

4. Heat and stir the mixture on low heat. Bring to a boil then stir consistently and make sure that the sugar is dissolved.

5. Bring the flame to low heat. Then add the custard powder paste and stir quickly using a wired whisk. The mixture should be smooth and lump-free.

Continue to stir the mixture until it thickens. The custard sauce should coat the backside of a spoon. Turn off the heat when the custard sauce has thickened well enough.

I prefer to make the custard thick for trifles but if you want a slight medium consistency, you can use that too.

Leave the custard to cool at room temperature and bear in mind that the custard will thicken more as it cools.

Whip the Cream

6. In another bowl, pour in ½ a cup of chilled or cold cream. I have used here light cream with 25% milk fat. But you can use whipping or heavy cream with 36% to 50% fat. Then add ¼ teaspoon of vanilla extract.

7. Use an electric beater or stand mixer to whip the cream until you get soft peaks.

8. The image below shows soft peaks. Store the whipped cream in the refrigerator. Then slice and chop the fruits. You can use any seasonal fruits. Just avoid citrus fruits and melons.

Prep Fruits and Cake

9. Slice 250 grams of Vanilla Cake or sponge cake into cubes. For this recipe, I used homemade and spongy Applesauce Cake.

Then rinse, peel and chop the fruits. I have used a mix of apples, banana, fresh figs and pomegranate. Feel free to include fruits that you prefer.

You can also make a berry trifle with a berry jam or preserve and a layer of one type of berry or a mix of various berries.

10. Line half a portion of the sponge cubes in a serving bowl.

Tip: You can make individual portions of the trifles in bowls or dessert glasses.

Assemble Trifle

11. Opt to spread 2 to 3 tablespoons of a thick mango pulp or puree on the cake. If you are using mangoes, as a layer of fruit, then there is no need to add the mango pulp.

Alternatively, you can brush some fruit juice or sherry wine on the sponge layer but be careful not to pour too much as you don’t want the sponge to become soggy.

Tip: I prefer to add a layer of fresh mangoes instead when they are in season.

12. Next add a layer of chopped mixed fruits. I decided to add apples, bananas and fresh figs but you can use berries too.

13. Add pomegranate arils.

14. Next, spread a layer of half of the custard over the pomegranate arils.

15. Remove the whipped cream from the fridge and spread the third layer with the cream.

16. You need to repeat all of the layers again. So start by adding the second batch of the eggless sponge cubes.

17. Add mango puree and another layer of mixed fruits.

18. Add the custard layer again. Then lastly add the remaining whipped cream.

19. Smooth and even out the final layer of cream using a spatula. Then decorate the top as you desire. You can add fruits, berries or even chocolate shavings to decorate or you can leave the whipped cream plain.

20. I decorated with pomegranate arils.

21. Cover the finished trifle with a foil or a lid and leave it to set in the fridge for 4 to 5 hours. Serve trifle pudding cold as a dessert.

Expert Tips

• Cake: You can use lots of different cakes to make trifle recipe. My Applesauce Cake, Eggless Vanilla Cake and Eggless Chocolate Cake are some great options. You can also use day old cake or buy cake from the supermarket or bakery.
• Custard sauce: There are various ways to make custard. Use custard powder or cornstarch (known as corn flour in India). If you are adding corn starch then add vanilla extract or essence to flavor the custard and use the same amount of corn starch as that of custard powder mentioned in this recipe. If you decide to use custard powder then there is no need to add vanilla extract or essence.
• Mixed fruits: Add your favorite fruits to the trifle pudding! Fruits like apples, mangoes, papaya, chikoo (sapota), figs, pomegranate are my go-to options. I sometimes add berries too to give the trifle more flavor and texture. According to Ayurveda you should avoid combining citrus fruits and melons with milk. It is also believed that the combination of bananas and milk cause lethargy, but I still added bananas as they taste delicious in this recipe.
• Whipped cream: Feel free to use light cream or whipping cream for this trifle. I only have access to light cream here, so I have used that instead. Alternatively, you can use clotted cream (cream floating on top of milk). Whip ½ a cup of cold clotted cream until it becomes smooth and has soft peaks.
• Additions: You can add dry fruits and nuts to the trifle. Plus any fruit purees, berry coulis and jam of your choice.

FAQs

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Please be sure to rate the recipe in the recipe card or leave a comment below if you have made it. For more vegetarian inspirations, Sign Up for my emails or follow me on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter.

This Trifle recipe from the archives first published in April 2015 has been republished and updated on 6 May 2022.