The night before Christmas trifle

Name: The night before Christmas trifle
Prep time: 45 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 1 h 5 min
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 580 g pack No.1 Carrot Cake; Cooks’ Ingredients Golden Sprinkles, to serve; Toasted flaked almonds, to serve

Will Torrent's recipe is perfect for a Christmas Eve pudding. . It’s made up of the treats you can leave out for Father Christmas (and Rudolph), with a few extra flavours thrown in. What's more, it can also be an alternative to Christmas pud on the big day, or a centrepiece for Boxing Day.

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Serves12
CourseDessert
Prepare45 mins
Cook20 mins
Total time1 hr 5 mins
PlusCooling and chilling

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580g pack No.1 Carrot Cake
Cooks’ Ingredients Golden Sprinkles, to serve
Toasted flaked almonds, to serve

For the mandarin & sparkling wine jelly

3 x 298g cans Essential Mandarin Oranges In Fruit Juice
5 platinum grade gelatine leaves
400ml dry sparkling white wine

For the brandy or sherry custard

4 medium free range egg yolks
40g caster sugar
2½ tbsp cornflour
1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
350ml whole milk
50ml French brandy, or cream sherry

For the whipped cream

300ml tub whipping cream
250g tub soft cheese
1 tbsp vanilla bean paste
6 No.1 Mini Brown Butter Mince Pies with Cognac (from a box of 9)

Start with the jelly. Drain the mandarin segments and reserve the juice (there should be about 315ml to add to a large jug). Reserve 100g mandarins in a bowl, then cover and chill. Reserve 3 tbsp mandarin juice separately. Spread the remaining mandarins over the base of a 20cm trifle bowl that’s at least 11cm deep (or about 3.4L capacity). Soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water for 5 minutes to soften.
In a medium saucepan, heat 200ml wine (chill the rest) to just below boiling point. Remove from the heat. Squeeze the softened gelatine and whisk into the hot wine until dissolved. Stir the gelatine mix into the jug of mandarin juice and leave to cool for 15 minutes, or until it no longer feels warm, but hasn’t started to set. Stir in the remaining 200ml wine, then immediately pour it over the mandarins, cover and chill for 6 hours (or overnight) until set.
Scrape the frosting from the cake and reserve in a bowl. Slice the cake into 5 slices lengthways, then cut each one into 5 to make squares and smaller edge pieces. Top the set jelly with the cake pieces, laying squares around the edge of the dish so you can see them. Sprinkle with the reserved mandarin juice.
Make the custard. Mix the egg yolks, sugar, cornflour and vanilla together in a mixing bowl with a whisk. Heat the milk and brandy or sherry in a saucepan until steaming. Pour the steaming liquid into the egg mixture in a thin stream, whisking continuously until combined.
Transfer back to the pan, set over a mediumhigh heat and bring to steaming again, stirring continuously. Cook, without boiling, for 3-5 minutes until the custard thickens. It’s ready when a spoon dragged through it leaves a gap along the base of the pan for a second. Pour into a wide bowl, then cover with baking parchment directly touching the surface.
When the custard is cool, spoon it over the sponge, cover and chill for 2 hours (or up to 1 day ahead, if needed).
Make the whipped cream. Using an electric handheld mixer, whisk the cream, soft cheese and reserved carrot cake frosting along with the vanilla paste in a large bowl until just forming soft peaks. Spoon the vanilla cream over the custard in large spoonfuls.
Just before serving, cut the mini mince pies in half and scatter over the top of the trifle, with the reserved mandarin segments, some gold sprinkles and almonds.