This easy and delicious homemade trifle recipe made with sponge cake, mixed fruits, custard and whipped cream is the perfect dessert to brighten up your dinner table.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 15 minutes
  • Cook time: 15 minutes
  • Total time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 7
  • Category: Desserts
  • Cuisine: British, World

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons custard powder (- swap 3 tablespoon cornstarch + ½ teaspoon vanilla extract/essence for custard powder)
  • 3 tablespoons whole milk (- warm)
  • 1.5 cups whole milk (- at room temperature or cold)
  • 4 tablespoons sugar (or add as required)
  • ½ cup light cream (- 25% to 35% or whipping or heavy cream)
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract (- optional)
  • 250 grams Eggless Sponge Cake (or 1 small eggless sponge cake)
  • 2 to 2.5 cups chopped mix fruits (- apple, banana, figs, pomegranate or your preferred fruits or berries)
  • 4 to 5 tablespoons mango pulp (or any thick fruit puree or pulp or a fruit or berry jam or preserve)

Method

Making custard sauce

  1. Warm 3 tablespoons of the milk in a microwave or in a small steel bowl on the stove top. Then add the custard powder to the warm milk.
  2. Stir and dissolve the custard powder very well in the milk. There should be no lumps. Keep this slurry or paste aside.
  3. In another pan, take 1.5 cups milk. Then add sugar.
  4. Stir and heat this milk and sugar solution on a low to medium flame. Just bring to a gentle heat and stir so that the sugar dissolves.
  5. Reduce the heat to its lowest. Then add the custard powder slurry or paste and stir quickly with a wired whisk, so that no lumps are formed.
  6. Keep on stirring till the custard thickens and the raw taste of the custard powder is not there. The custard sauce should coat and form a layer on the back of a spoon. Switch off the heat.
  7. Allow the custard to cool at room temperature.

Whipping cream

  1. In another bowl, take cold or chilled cream. Add vanilla extract.
  2. With an electric beater or in a stand mixer, whip the cream till you get soft peaks.
  3. Keep this whipped cream in the refrigerator.

Prepping fruits and cake

  1. Now slice 250 grams or a small block of plain eggless vanilla cake or eggless sponge cake into even sized cubes.
  2. Also rinse, peel and chop fruits that you plan to include in the trifle.
  3. You can use any seasonal fruits. But avoid citrus fruits and melons.

Making fruit trifle

  1. Line half a portion of the sponge cubes in a serving bowl. You can also make individual portions of the trifles in bowls or dessert glasses.
  2. Now spread 2 to 3 tablespoons of thick mango pulp or puree on the cake. This is optional. You can also brush a bit of fruit juice or sherry wine on the sponge layer. But just make sure the sponge does not become soggy. If without fruit juice, spread a thin layer of a fruit jam or berry jam on the cake pieces.
  3. Note that if you are using mangoes, in the fruit layer, then no need to add the mango pulp.
  4. Now layer half of the chopped mixed fruits. Here I used apples, bananas and fresh figs. You can use berries too.
  5. Also added some pomegranate arils.
  6. Spread half of the prepared custard in a layer.
  7. Remove the whipped cream from the fridge and make a layer of the cream.
  8. Again repeat all the layers, starting with some more eggless sponge cubes.
  9. Then add the mango puree and another layer of mix fruits.
  10. Make the custard layer again. Then lastly make whipped cream layer again.
  11. Make the top cream layer even with a spatula and start to decorate the top layer. You can use fruits, berries or even chocolate shavings to decorate the top layer.
  12. Cover with a foil or lid and keep the trifle pudding in the fridge to set for 4 to 5 hours or overnight.
  13. Serve the chilled trifle pudding as a dessert.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.