This trifle will look smashing on your Christmas table!!! Layers of custard and jelly, studded with cake and piled high with cream and fruit, it looks stunning in a trifle dish but otherwise just use a glass bowl!
TOP TIP: you can buy the cake and custard ready made (though my recipe uses homemade). But I really recommend making the jelly yourself. It’s such a major component in trifle, it’s easy, and the difference between artificially flavoured packet jelly and real fruit jelly is phenomenal!
Christmas Trifle
The first time I made trifle, I used raspberry flavoured Aeroplane jelly and store bought custard. It looked so fabulous, I was beaming with pride. Blinded by the beauty of the trifle, I completely forgot the first rule of cooking – it doesn’t matter how pretty it looks or how good the photos are if it tastes meh.
One big bite, and I wrinkled my nose with distaste. The jelly flavour was just so incredibly artificial, it was really off-putting because its artificial-ness is such a stark contrast to all the other flavours going on in the trifle.
Now before you go thinking I’m some kind of food snob, let me just say this – I actually don’t mind Aeroplane jelly on it’s own, there’s something sentimental about it. And I thoroughly encourage you to use store bought custard if you are pressed for time (though homemade is really sooooo good!).
BUT PLEASE DO NOT USE FLAVOURED AEROPLANE JELLY IN THIS TRIFLE!!!!
I promise you, it is so crazy simple to make real juice flavoured jelly! All you have to do is use gelatine which is very cheap and easy to use!
NOTE: I used to use flavourless Aeroplane Jelly for the jelly (click here for the original recipe). It’s no longer available, so the recipe uses plain gelatine instead which was preciously an alternative in the notes. Video not yet refilmed. Will do so next year!
For those of you wondering about the difference: Flavourless Aeroplane Jelly was sweet so the recipe called for unsweetened cranberry juice. Gelatine powder is unsweetened so we need to use sweetened cranberry juice.
I think the reason why it makes such a difference to use real Cranberry Juice for the jelly instead of flavoured Aeroplane Jelly is because there is so much of it in the trifle. Also, the jelly is slightly more concentrated in flavour than when you make it per the packet directions because the liquid to crystals ratio is lower, to ensure the jelly is firm enough to withstand the weight of everything piled on top of it.
Other than that, I have no other trifle rules. In fact, I’m pretty relaxed about everything else. Use whatever cake you want for the base – store bought or homemade madeira, Pound Cake or Vanilla Cake, even Christmas cake. Use homemade or store bought custard. Use any fruit you want – even canned is fine. I’d even say it’s pretty ok to use whipped cream out of a spray can over using flavoured Aeroplane jelly!!!
If you want quite neat layers, like depicted, please do follow the recipe carefully for each layer. In my trifle making life, there have been some not-so-pretty trifle efforts (albeit tasty!). Mainly bleeding between the layers, and jelly that set too much before ladling onto the custard, so it looked broken and split, rather than a clear jelly to show off the fruit in that layer.
If you’re catering for a large group this Christmas and/or you want a dessert you can make days in advance, this Christmas Trifle is ideal! Just assemble the layers then refrigerate. The only thing you’ll need to do on the day is whip the cream and pile on the fruit.
Then stand back and admire your handiwork. Beam with pride at how gorgeous your trifle looks. Enjoy that moment, because as soon as people start digging in, it will look like a complete and utter wreck. A delicious wreck. 😂 – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Christmas Trifle
Ingredients
- 1 x 450g / 14 oz Madeira cake or Pound cake store bought (Note 1)
- 1/3 cup orange or other fruit flavoured liquor (like Cointreau), or apple, orange or other fruit juice (or 2 tbsp brandy)
- 7 tsp gelatine powder (Note 2)
- 6 cups Cranberry juice, original (ie WITH sugar added, not No Added Sugar, Note 2)
- 500 – 750g (1 – 1.5 lb) strawberries , halved
- 1 each punnet blueberries, raspberries
Cream:
- 2 1/2 cups heavy / thickened cream (or pure whipping cream)
- 3 tbsp white sugar (caster sugar ok)
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Homemade Thick Custard (or 900g 1 tub Pauls Double Thick Vanilla Custard, Note 3):
- 3 cups milk (full or low fat)
- 1/4 cup caster sugar (superfine sugar)
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or extract) (Note 4)
- 1/4 cup caster sugar (superfine sugar), extra
- 4 egg yolks (Note 7 for using leftover whites)
- 1/2 cup cornflour / cornstarch
Instructions
- Cut cake into 2 cm / 0.8" cubes. Cover bottom of 3.5 L / 3.5 qt trifle dish with cake (might not use all) and sprinkle with liquor or juice.
- Optional extra: Scatter over 1/2 to 1 punnet halved strawberries (this is not in ingredients list).
Cranberry Jelly:
- Heat half juice – Put half the cranberry juice into a saucepan over medium heat (3 cups / 750ml). Bring to a simmer, then turn off stove.
- Dissolve geatline – Meanwhile, put remaining room temperature cranberry juice into a very large bowl. Sprinkle gelatine all across surface (don't dump in one place, else you get lumps). Whisk until mostly dissolved (will finish dissolving in next step).
- Pour in hot cranberry juice. Whisk until gelatin is fully dissolved.
Jelly Layer 1:
- Pour HALF the warm jelly liquid carefully down the side of the trifle dish so the cake pieces are submerged. Refrigerate the trifle dish uncovered for 1 1/2 hours until it is partly set. It needs to be set enough so you can gently place a strawberry on it and it will stay on the surface. Proceed to Custard Layer steps.
- Pour remaining warm jelly in a bowl and leave on the counter. DO NOT refrigerate.
- Meanwhile, make the custard so it is ready to use (see below for how to make).
Custard Layer:
- Remove trifle from fridge. Whisk the room temperature custard to loosen. Spoon onto the jelly, smooth surface, press against wall of glass to seal (stops jelly bleed so you get neat layers). Refrigerate uncovered for 1 hour until the surface has firmed up a bit – just enough to hold the jelly (jelly is soft, so custard doesn't need to be fully set).
Partially set remaining jelly
- Give the remaining jelly a good whisk then put it in the fridge at the same time to thicken a bit but not fully set. Refrigerate for 1 hour, but check at 30 minutes to ensure it isn't setting too fast. The jelly should be sloppy but spoonable, scoops up in a small mound. If it fully sets, you'll end up with a "broken glass" effect on the next jelly layer rather than a clear layer (read Note 5).
Jelly Layer 2:
- Remove trifle and jelly from fridge. Jelly should be sloppy. Carefully spoon over jelly, smooth surface. Scatter over 1 punnet halved strawberries (or half each raspberries and strawberries). Refrigerate for 3 hours+ (can leave in fridge for 48 hours, until ready to assemble).
Assembling:
- Cream: Beat cream, sugar and vanilla until softly whipped.
- Once jelly is set, just before serving, top with cream, then pile over remaining berries. Dust with icing sugar.
- Serve!! PS It is imperative to ensure every servings includes a bit of every layer in the trifle 😂
Homemade Custard:
- Bring milk, ¼ cup sugar and vanilla to a simmer in a large saucepan over medium heat. Do not boil.
- In a large bowl, whisk together remaining ¼ cup sugar and yolks, then whisk in cornflour until smooth.
- While whisking, carefully pour in about ½ cup of milk mixture. Once mixed in, slowly pour in remaining milk while whisking. Once incorporated and smooth, pour back into saucepan.
- Return saucepan to stove over low heat. Whisk constantly until it becomes thick and custardy – this will happen quite quickly, about 45 seconds (ie it is liquidy when you start, then suddenly it thickens). Once thickened, remove immediately from heat (it will continue to thicken as it cools).
- Immediately pour into a bowl and cover with cling wrap, pressing onto surface. Leave on the counter to cool to room temp until trifle is ready to layer with custard. Makes 750ml. (Note 5)
Recipe Notes:
Life of Dozer
Dear Santa,
All I want for Christmas is for this Trifle to fall off the table.
Love, Dozer 🐾
Santa won’t be making good on that wish, but while he was sleeping, Santa accidentally flung some custard on his face and he didn’t even stir….
Hi Nagi, thank you so much for all your beautiful recipes & the good you do for people less fortunate with your community kitchen & feeding folks with your lovely food!
I made your lovely trifle 3 times over the Christmas period, as we had to accommodate family travelling & also making a moveable feast.
The trifle bowl I bought, same as yours, it doesn’t always fit in fridges. I kept it in a cooler bag with ice blocks. The way it was done, was fine. Just did a bowl of whipped cream to add, if people wanted.
Like many in comments, I thought I had made a mistake with the cranberry juice jelly setting, it eventually did, but just sharing what I tried next as time poor with work. It was 3 hours plus the first go. I worked out the fluid to ratio with cranberry juice to gelatine, you don’t want it all hard & yucky, but even with my suggestion below, it turns out lovely.
The 3 pack of Queen Dr Oetker Gelatine powder from Woolies, gently blend in the 3 sachets to the 1.5L cranberry juice, that works perfectly with the volume of cranberry juice (1.5L) & sets in time. Everything else I did as per recipe.
The first time I made the custard from scratch, it was lovely! If you have the time do it from scratch.
Second 2 trifles I made with custard powder ‘Foster Clark’s’ and you can just add a bit more of that custard powder to make it thicker if needed. It doesn’t turn out too sweet either.
Nagi makes it clear when stirring custard from scratch when it’s ready, it thickens fast, no different from taking off the stove with using custard powder & how my Nanna always did it.
Also some people who have an aversion to cream in our families, so what I did, packed it with fruit & and a can of tinned peaches as well, arranged on top of the second layer of jelly, (I added raspberries as well as chopped strawberries in second layer of jelly) people could add whipped cream if they wanted that. On the top blueberries, raspberries & strawberries.
It turned out amazing!
Not only that, I made RecipeTinEats prawn & mango salad, chicken pasta salad variation, and Nagi’s coleslaw. It all went down a hit with our family Christmas. We had other food as well. It was easy for everyone. I did double what we needed with salads & cold meats & bread rolls, so everyone had food to take home that night as well, including desserts. Thanks Nagi!! Your recipes are amazing 🥰
Everyone loved your Trifle recipe xo
Hi Nagi, thanks for the amazing recipe. Just letting you know that double thick custard is unavailable in stores, apparently they have stopped making it in the factory for a few months now. Not sure when it will return.
I wanted to make a mango trifle for our Christmas dinner. I made jelly using the juice from a can of peaches, mixed with a bottle of sparkling apple juice – very yum.
For the custard part, I found a recipe that uses 12 egg yolks for the 3 cups of milk – but it curdled and was horrible, and what a waste of 12 eggs! 😭
So then I decided to try Nagi’s custard from this trifle. Oh my goodness – it is sooo quick, and soooo delicious, and I wish I’d started out with this recipe instead of the other one I tried!
Over the years, I have tried a LOT of recipes, trying to find the best creme patissiere recipe – and I reckon THIS custard recipe is IT!! It’s really a sensational recipe – smooth, creamy, the right amount of sweet. I will definitely be using this recipe in the future, whenever I need creme pat. Thanks Nagi 🙏🏼
I first made this trifle in 2019 and it was a big hit with the family. I’m so glad I discovered that you’ve updated the recipe, as I wasn’t sure what to do when unflavoured Aeroplane jelly became unavailable. I’m currently at the custard layer on the updated recipe and, like others have said, the jelly is taking a bit longer to set. However, it looks fantastic and I can’t wait to get into it for our Christmas Eve celebration tomorrow. I have always been a fan of jelly, berries and cranberry juice, so this is the perfect recipe for me. One of the best trifles ever!
Hi Nagi, I’m having trouble finding extra thick custard this year, have Pauls stopped making it?? Any good substitute, Australia? Merry Christmas X
Same here…. I brought regular stuff and hasn’t set at all… I’ll try the 2nd jelly layer tonight and hopefully it doesn’t bleed to much…
Any suggestions on how to thicken supermarket custard? I was going to mix corn flour with water and whisk it in…? Didn’t want to reheat it.
I don’t have time to make my own custard now 😢
Looks and tastes amazing. The cranberry jelly is easy to make and a game changer. I have made this twice and like others found the jelly takes longer to set than the recipe suggests. Made 48 hours prior and added cream and fruit just prior to serving and was delicious.
Been making this for the past few years for Christmas, and I can’t seem to find Pauls double thick custard anywhere this year! Send help! How does one turn normal custard into double thick custard?
This is my “signature” recipe everyone calls for christmas time. Delicious!! Would the ocean spray cranberry pomegranate flavour work aswell?
I made this from scratch as directed. I found that the link to the vanilla cake was for two recipes and it was unclear how many were needed for the trifle. Probably only one? Anyway, I made a pound cake for the bottom layer. The jelly layers did take a lot longer to set than as written in the recipe. Maybe the timings haven’t been updated now for the real (not Aeroplane) jelly? All in all though, a fabulous recipe and it tastes AMAZING! And of course it looks AMAZING!
Same here! The timing is way off. I made this last year and was quite stressed as it wasn’t setting!
Gluten free options instead of pound/Madeira cake please?
You could just make any sponge cake with gluten free flour or other flours.
Made your trifle it was delicious.Made a huge bowel it lasted about 3 days the jelly is now the only way I will make jelly from now on. Five people gobbled it down.
The vision of five people gobbling this down made my DAY!!! N x
Hi 👋🏻 I was just wondering, do you think muscat would compliment the other flavours as is?
Thank you in advance!
Just made this to use up some frozen leftover cake. Had a juice in the fridge that was berry and something else which made a nice jelly. I made the home made custard which was beautiful. All not too sweet at all.
Your explanations and attention to all details is truly exceptional in this recipe!
I do intend to make this one day 🙏
Thankyou for being so thorough and thoughtful with all steps.
Cathy x
I made this trifle for our Christmas luncheon. To say that is was a visual delight is an understatement. Not only that but the trifle worked out perfectly and tasted amazing. I wouldn’t change a thing about this beauty.
Looks amazing, and I really want to try oit for guests this week, what size bowl did everyone use to make the trifle in?
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This was glorious – thank you! I added an extra teaspoon of gelatin to the jelly based on some previous comments, and it set in the times predicted in the recipe. I included a couple of layers of sliced mango, as suggested in the variation on this recipe published in the Sydney Morning Herald, and it was delicious – the mango added a nice sweetness and an extra layer of custardy texture. Another recipe that I know I’ll make repeatedly – thank you!
Tasted delicious, but I agree that the times listed for ‘jelly layer 1’ aren’t at all reliable. I bought the exact brands suggested, and it still took about 3 hours before the jelly was set enough to spoon custard onto. At the 1.5 hour mark it was still basically runny like water. I’d suggest expecting at least 3 hours for this step.
I made trifle for the first time and this was an excellent recipe. It even looked perfect (I was expecting all kinds of disasters). The only thing I didn’t add was the cream on top, and changed the store bought custard to lactose free but it tasted amazing. Everyone went back for seconds. So easy to eat!! Will definitely repeat 🙂