In our household Zoe is the arch dessert maker. She takes after her grandmother (Pamela) and is an intuitive ‘throw it in’ type of cook. Last Christmas Zoe made Nigella’s Italian Christmas Pudding/Cake and it really was galumptious but this Christmas Zoe decided to go free-style with a trifle thing, taking inspiration from Nigella’s gallous ideas and Grandma’s diversions with tiramisu. Because of this – there is no real recipe and what I am about to write is an estimate only. All I can say is – experiment for yourselves and adjust the levels according to your own tastes and your tolerance for rich ingredients. Whatever it looks like it’s bound to be delicious because you cannot combine cream, cake, fruit, alcohol and nuts and it not be truly indulgently yummy! [The leftovers are really great for late night snack and even breakfast!]

Here goes…

Stage One – preparing the main components

1. Select a beautiful glass bowl – so you can see the beautiful layers.
2. Carve a large Panettone into about 1.5-2cm slices.
3. Whisk two eggs with about a tablespoon of caster sugar until frothy.
4. Whip together cream (approx 300ml) and marscapone (approx 300g tub) and add a dash of either Marsala or Tuaca (if you have a really sweet tooth add a dessert spoon of caster sugar).
5. Fold together the creamy and eggy mixtures.
6. Prepare fresh fruit – Zoe used a mixture of chopped fresh mango, nectarine, and passion fruit pulp and assorted berries
7. Toast some pistachios and or slivered almonds – then crush/chop them a little.
8. Knock out seeds from one pomegranate.
9. Mix together a mug of cold black instant coffee with a good dowsing of Marsala and pour into a shallow bowl.

Stage Two – compilation

1. Dip the panettone slices in the coffee mixture and place in bottom of bowl to make a single layer
2. Spoon in the fruit salad (about a third) – at this point you could also sprinkle over a few nuts and maybe even some dark chocolate drops.
3. Spoon in a layer of the cream mixture (about a third)
4. Repeat the previous three steps twice.
5. For the topping – sprinkle the nuts and pomegranate seeds over the cream.
6. Place in the fridge til ready to devour. (Make sure to have a small main course if you want to have room for this!)

Enjoy! Then plan your fitness regime to start very soon.