Classic English Trifle Made Vegan
Trifle is a classic English dessert that features layers of soaked sponge cake, fruits, custard and whipped cream, served in a large deep glass bowl. Versions for adults sometimes contain sherry and the dessert is usually topped with flaked almonds.
Keep away from pets, due to citrus, chocolate etc. Bin any citrus/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures.
Making your own trifle is pretty simple, it’s just a series of steps!
Replacing non-vegan sponge fingers
The most complicated part is deciding how to replace a sponge cake, which won’t be vegan (or free from palm oil) if you buy it in shops.
The Veg Space has a good simple recipe for a vegan sponge cake made with vegan block butter with no palm oil (Flora and Miyoko’s are good brands).
Fruity trifle fillings
Lemon cherry trifle (School Night Vegan)
A classic homemade trifle usually uses fresh raspberries, due to their tart flavour balancing the sweet heavy layers of custard and cream. You can use fresh or frozen (Pack’d sells frozen organic berries in paper packs). Other fruity options are strawberries, blackberries or blueberries.
Another option is sliced stone fruits (peaches, nectarines, apricots). Use ripe fresh slices, or canned versions for a softer bite (draine the juice to avoid a runny custard, and drink it instead!)
If using tinned fruits, rinse/remove lids (or pop ring-pulls over holes) then step on the can to pinch the inner rims together, to avoid wildlife getting trapped at recycling points.
In winter, options could be poached pears, segmented oranges or mandarins (any of these make nice Christmas trifles).
Unless you have a food waste bin (made into biogas), it’s best to just bin citrus peels, as acids could harm compost creatures.
For tropical fruits, use frozen (again Pack’d sells organic versions in paper packs), as fresh tropical fruits (pineapple, kiwi, papaya, mango, figs) contains bromelaine enzyme that will stop your jelly setting.
The vegan custard filling
Vegan custard is easy to make and buy, so there’s no issue there. You could go to town with a chocolate trifle, and make easy vegan chocolate custard.
The ‘dream topping’ cream
Any kind of vegan whipped cream is fine. Coconut Collab and Elmlea both sell good double creams that would be ideal. Or make your own.
Sliced almonds on top?
No problems here, just ensure they are organic and grown locally, to avoid the big brands that tend to use migratory beekeeping (it’s complicated, but safe to say, not good for bees).
Or omit them and just add more fresh fruit.
The history of trifle
Trifle is much older than the 1970s Bird’s Trifle with dream topping. The first recipe dates back to the 1590s, and due to alcohol being used to soak the sponge, it was originally called ‘tipsy cake!’
By far the most popular ready-made trifle mix in the UK is Bird’s Trifle, which has been around since the 1970s. It doesn’t have eggs (the founder’s wife had an egg allergy) and is still sold in strawberry, raspberry or chocolate versions.
But although the jelly is free from gelatine, other sachets contain whey or milk solids, so it’s not vegan. And not very natural either!
