Trifling things

Anika was just chatting with one of her North American internet friends today over Skype and I jokingly offered her some trifle over the video call. Anika's friend had no idea what trifle was and, to our surprise, neither did any of her friends nearby. It's a great dessert for those of us needing gluten-free food. So, in case anyone is interested, here is a basic recipe:

First you need to make up about 500 ml of jelly. By jelly I don't mean jam, I think Americans call it jello. We like raspberry jelly. When it's set you can make the trifle.

1. You need a largish bowl. At the bottom put some cut up sponge cake (a jam roll works well - perhaps it's called a jelly roll there). Due to Matt and I needing gluten-free we substitute some sweet, no-wheat biscuits called "rice cookies" for the cake if we don't have gluten-free cake. We'd put around 10 biscuits on the bottom.

2. Soak the cake/biscuits in about 1/2 a cup of whatever you like. We use either port or rum but if we have visitors who don't like alcohol we substitute the juice from a can of sliced peaches.

3. Put whatever fruit you have on top of this. Today I used canned, sliced peaches but you can use fresh fruit if you have some available.

4. Cut up the jelly (jello) and place on top of the fruit.

5. On top of this put about 500 ml of custard. I sometimes make my own custard, but just lately I've been buying it ready made as there are a few gluten-free brands available.

6. Top everything with whipped cream (about 400 ml).

7. Grate some chocolate on top. Fresh strawberries go nice on top, but they're not in season here at the moment.

8. It's ready to serve. When we have visitors I use two large bowls and double up the amount of everything.

I should have taken a picture to post here, but the bowl was scraped clean before I had a chance.