A good English trifle can be the show-stopping pisté-de-résistance of any meal, whether you're enjoying it as the dessert to your Sunday dinner or filling it with candles for a celebration.

However, getting the custard right can be hard and if your recipe calls for jelly, that can be tricky to get right too - who needs that kind of stress? Never mind the added toll of making the cake for the cake layer yourself.

For this gin-soaked trifle recipe, we have done away with all baking. Aside from a little minor prep work, all you have to do is assemble and serve!

And what a mouth-watering serve it is! For this recipe we have marinated fresh berries in pink gin - learn how to make your own strawberry-flavoured pink gin here or if raspberries are more your thing, find out how to make homemade raspberry gin at this link.

Coupled with delightfully mellow custard and elegant lemon and vanilla-infused whipped cream, those gin-laced berries are heavenly. The cake then soaks up the flavours of each element SO wonderfully.

We can’t wait for you to give this trifle a try!

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Pink Gin & Summer Berry Trifle

What are the layers in a traditional trifle? A classic trifle has layers of sponge, fruit (sometimes set in jelly), custard and cream. There is often a boozy element too, where the sponge may be doused in alcohol, as with a sherry trifle or our Ginger, Cranberry & Orange Trifle.

As this trifle recipe is all about keeping things simple and effortless, we have taken some short-cuts with our layers. Trust us, the result is just as delicious as any other trifle could be!

For our sponge layer, we recommend using shop-bought or pre-made cake - perhaps you have pound cake leftover from our Gin & Lemon Pound Cake recipe or you have some swiss roll or Madeira cake in the cupboard (we use swiss roll in our Raspberry Gin Trifle too!). Any sponge cake will do but we recommend a dense cake if the choice is there.

For the fruit layer, there is no jelly, we are simply macerating fresh summer berries in pink gin, sugar and orange zest. Not only do they provide a refreshing taste of summer, but they also add a variety of textures to the dish that is just heavenly.

For the custard and cream layers, we are going with a simple chantilly cream, with lemon zest and vanilla, and shop-bought or pre-made custard.

If you aren’t a fan of custard then we recommend doubling the cream and then using one half for the custard layer, adding an extra teaspoon of vanilla extract to the half, replacing the custard.

We can wait no longer, here is our easy Pink Gin & Summer Berry Trifle!

600ml double cream
500ml custard (shop-bought or homemade)
200g blueberries
200g strawberries (quartered)
200g raspberries
200ml pink gin
400g cake (pound cake or swiss roll are great here)
Zest of 1 lemon
1tsp vanilla syrup
Zest of 1 orange
1 tbsp sugar

1. Add the fresh berries to a bowl with the sugar, orange zest and pink gin. Stir everything together and leave to marinate for 30 minutes, stirring regularity (or whenever you happen to walk past the bowl).

2. Add the lemon zest and vanilla syrup to the cream and whip until it can hold soft peaks.

3. It's time to assemble the trifle. Tear up the cake into sponge fingers and use half to line the bottom of your trifle bowl. Add half the berry mix in an even layer on top of the cake, making sure to get some of the ginny juices in there too. Add the custard on top of the fruit. Add the rest of the cake in an even layer over the custard, then add the rest of the fruit to form yet another even layer. Add the cream to the top of the fruit.

4. Leave the trifle in the fridge to chill for at least 40 minutes before serving.

   Enjoy!

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