Last minute trifle!

Its great to have friends home for drinks and a meal, especially if it is for a special occasion. The laughter, the conversations, the lovely warmth of good company heightened by the light headed cheer of the booze and delicious food.

As the host, the last thing you want though is to be stuck in the kitchen baking while the rest of the gang is having fun outside. This trifle we created needs hardly any work and is more an assembly job than actual cooking.

So if you are inviting a big group home for Christmas or any other occasion really, you should seriously consider making this trifle. It can be made in one large bowl allowing people to dig into it or you can assemble it in individual serving glasses. Jini actually calls these a cocktail more than a dessert

What you need:

• Chopped fruits 500 gms - we used strawberries and kiwi fruit in keeping with the colour theme of the season
• 100 g box of jelly made replacing half the water required with alcohol of your choice
• 400 g cream cheese
• 200 g heavy cream
• 200 g white chocolate
• 400 g cake - we used a store bought fruit cake soaked in 90 ml of whiskey
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• a fistful of basil leaves chopped finely

How we stir:

• Mascerate the strawberries in the balsamic vinegar for about 20 minutes
• Take out the chilled jelly from the fridge and chop into bite sized pieces
• Beat the heavy cream and cream cheese together till well combined and lump free
• Melt the white chocolate in a microwave and allow to cool a little. Fold into the cream cheese mixture and allow to set in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes
• Chop up the cake into bite sized pieces
• Now comes the layering, bottom layer balsamic strawberries, next cake, then cream cheese mixture.(If you dont like cream cheese, you can also just whip cream and use it here. We thought the mild saltiness provides a nice flavour combination) Next the chopped jelly, then some more cake, then the cream cheese mixture again. Topped with some more strawberries and the kiwi fruit!
• Done..now dig in and feel the warmth of this dessert spread through you!

Come to think of it, you can actually just set out all the components on the table and have people make up their own trifles based on what they like. Further work load reduction for you and people can make them exactly as they please!Just to let you know, the day we made these both of us left our kitchen intoxicated by all the booze in this dessert, and we didnt even have a whole glass each! So be prepared for some fun times after you have served this up!Merry Christmas!