Fondant Fox - Black Forest MEGA trifle

Fondant Fox is taking the traditional Christmas trifle, and pimping it up to the max! The flavours are based on a classic Black Forest Gateaux , so includes layers and layers of rich chocolate sponge pieces soaked in Kirsch, juicy black cherries, vanilla bean homemade custard - (made with cream), whipped cream, some crushed gingerbread for a bit of crunch, chocolate shards and a few extra fresh cherries on top - an EPIC Xmas day dessert which is guaranteed to put a smile on everybody’s face!

Recipes by @fondantfox

Ingredients

CHOCOLATE SPONGE:
Dry ingredients:
• 225g Plain Flour
• 350g Golden Caster Sugar
• 85g Cocoa Powder
• 1.5 tsp Baking Powder
• 1.5 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
• 1 tsp table salt

VANILLA BEAN CUSTARD:
• 570ml single cream
• 6 egg yolks
• 50g caster sugar
• 1tbsp cornflour
• 1tbsp vanilla bean paste

• Glass trifle Dish
• Slab of Chocolate sponge (optional - sandwiched with black cherry jam)
• 600ml Double cream - loosely whipped
• Chilled homemade custard
• Leftover gingerbread crushed into small pieces (if you don’t have this, just use normal crunched up ginger biscuits)
• Fresh black cherries
• 400ml jar of black cherries in kirsch
• 125g Dark chocolate melted then poured onto a greaseproof paper lined tray and spread to around 2mm thickness, chilled, then broken into large shards

Method

Preheat oven to 180c fan. Whisk your dry ingredients in a large bowl until evenly combined. Add the wet ingredients and mix until fully incorporated. Add 250ml of freshly boiled water and carefully stir in. Add to a lined tin (preferably a deep rectangle shape, then its easy to cut up into small squares when assembling, I used my roasting tin!). Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean.

Heat the milk and cream in a heavy bottomed saucepan until nearly at simmering point (around 95C). In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar, cornflour and vanilla until evenly mixed, then slowly pour in the hot cream (whisking all the time). Once the cream is added, transfer back to the pan and heat slowly whilst whisking, until the custard is lovely and thick (it should coat the back of a spoon). Once thickened, pour into a bowl, cling film and leave to cool in the fridge.

Cut your slab of chocolate sponge into 2cm squares and soak in kirsch. Whisk 600ml double cream until loosely whipped. Transfer your custard / whipped cream into large piping bags. Crush your gingerbread with a rolling pin. Wash your cherries. Pile into a large glass trifle dish (you can layer them up neatly / ad-hoc or I’ve gone a bit in between), finishing with a thin layer of whipped cream in line with the top of your bowl. Now be daring and pile your remaining ingredients as high as you possibly can, and top with your fresh cherries - WOW!