When I lived in England more than a decade ago, I was pretty excited about the prospect of eating trifle. It is English after all. Sadly, most of the trifles I ate while there were a lackluster mix of red jell-o, Bird's custard, and store-bought sponge. I will rarely turn down any type of sweet, so I ate this sad trifle quite happily, but I was always wanting more.
Despite my longing for delicious trifle, I never actually made any. Why? Too many steps, too many servings, no trifle bowl? Finally, a few years ago in planning for a family Christmas party, I decided it was time for trifle. I purchased a trifle bowl for all of $10 and got to work planning ideas. I drove Will and my sis crazy with my thoughts on the trifle: "What about this? Do you think that will taste good?" Really, I was annoying. But the results were lovely.
For this year's celebration, I decided it was time to give the recipe (and my trifle bowl) another go. From the first attempt, the trifle needed a bit of perfecting which I think I achieved. The trifle is sweet and lovely--a cakey, custardy version of a creamscicle. The trifle relies on my favorite winter citrus, the blood orange, for its flavor and color. I've only made the kid-friendly version of the trifle, but it would amazing with a bit of booziness soaked into the pound cake. Grand marnier would work wonderfully with the citrus flavors, but but there are plenty of other good options--brandy, rum, the traditional sherry. Just add a brush of whatever you choose to the pound cake slices before assembling the trifle.
Orange Cream Trifle
one pound cake : I like Dorie Greenspan's recipe in her lovely Baking for its lightness and general fail-proofness, but any would work--as would storebought
vanilla pastry cream: I go for Greenspan/ Herme here, a recipe which can be found in Desserts and Chocolate Desserts
blood orange curd:
8 large egg yolks
zest of two blood oranges (make sure you buy unsprayed)
1/2 cup, plus two tablespoons of blood orange juice (fresh is best, but you can often find blood orange juice in Italian food shops)
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
10 T. (5 oz) unsalted butter, cut into chunks
Whisk egg yolks, zest, juice and sugar in a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cook over med-high, stirring constantly until the mix reaches 160 F and is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove pan from heat. Mix in salt, then add butter one piece at a time until smooth. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium bowl. Cover surface with plastic wrap and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled and thickened.
chestnut whipped cream
2 cups whipped cream
1 cup chestnut paste (creme de marrons): found in most Italian food shops or other fancy food stores
blood orange segments, from 4-5 blood oranges, pith removed entirely. To easily segment oranges, slice of top and bottom, then remove remaining skin and pith with pairing knife. Slice flesh along the membranes to remove.
rasberry or red currant jam
dark chocolate
To Assemble:
Cut pound cake into 1/2 inch slices (depending on preference, you may remove the crusts). For fit, I slice these slices further into approx. 1 inch by 4 inch sticks. Heat up jam (about 1/2 cup) until smooth and slightly run. Brush each cake slice with jam (and alcohol, if using).
Cover bottom layer of trifle bowl with cake slices. Top with half of the blood orange curd. Lay all orange segments on top of the curd, and top with a scant amount of vanilla pastry cream just to cover the orange slices.
Arrange another layer of pound cake and top with the remaining curd.
Arrange final layer of cake and top with vanilla pastry cream.
Make chestnut cream. Whip two cups of whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Scoop 1/3 of the cream into a bowl and gently fold in chestnut paste. Then fold this back into the remaining whipped cream. Spread this on top of the pastry cream. Shave dark chocolate over the top as desired. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve. To allow flavors time to develop, it's best to prepare the trifle a day before serving.
