Who does not love cake layered with fresh berries, light vanilla custard cream, whipped cream loaded with small pieces of strawberries and topped with a sweet and gooey Italian meringue?

– Why should you try this recipe besides the lovely look of it?

Because each bite of this trifle is packed with deliciousness light cake, light cream custard (legere cream), whipped cream with bits of strawberries, fresh blueberries and strawberries and a hint of gooey meringue. Get the feel of it?

– How difficult is to make this trifle?

It is not difficult, but laborious since there are many components (layers) to it.

The layers are the following: simple vanilla cake, custard cream, whipped cream, Italian meringue, and fresh berries.

And it is true that you can have most of the “layers” coming directly from the store…but nothing will beat the freshness and the deliciousness of homemade one

– What is legere cream?

Please don’t let all these fancy terms intimidate you.  Legere cream is nothing more than a mix of whipped cream with custard cream or cream patisserie if you want to use impressive terms.

– Is there a need to say more? Let’s get to the recipe.

Ingredients:

– Chiffon cake

Recipe from HERE.

– Custard cream (Patisserie cream)

• ½ vanilla bean
• 150 g milk
• 3 egg yolks
• 45 g sugar
• 18 g cake flour
• 30 g butter

– Whipped cream

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 40 g of sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract

– Italian meringue

• 3 egg whites
• 145 g sugar
• ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

• Fresh strawberries, part of the strawberries chopped into small pieces.
• Fresh blueberries

Method:

– Chiffon cake

Preheat oven to 350^oF

Pour the batter from the recipe HERE into a 9-inch round cake pan.

Bake in bain-marie (water bath).

Turn the oven to 300^oF when placing the cake to bake.

Bake for approximately 35 minutes until a wooden inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and let if cool on a wire rack.

Once it is totally cool, slice the cake horizontally in the middle and set aside.

– Custard cream (Patisserie cream)

In a small pan, pour the milk and add the seed of the vanilla bean and the remaining vanilla pod.

Heat the milk and let it boil.

In the meantime, mix egg yolks, sugar, and cake flour.

Pour the hot milk onto the egg yok mixture, stir well.

Pour the mixture back to the pan and cook under low heat until the mixture thickens, stir constantly.

Remove the cream from the heat and pass through a sieve.

Cover the cream with a plastic film to avoid drying up. Set aside to let it cool.

– Whipped cream

Place the heavy cream into a cold bowl add sugar and vanilla extract.

Using an electric mixer, whip until peaks form.

Set aside in the refrigerator.

– Italian meringue

In a small pot combine the sugar and ⅓ cup water.

Place under medium heat (do not stir) and measure the temperature using a candy thermometer.

Once the temperature reach 116^oC (240^oF), remove from the heat.

Meanwhile, add the egg whites and cream of tartar together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment Whisk mix until soft peaks form.

Carefully and very slowly drizzle in the hot sugar syrup. At this point increase the speed of the mixer to high and whip until firm peaks form.

– Legere cream

Mix approximately ½ of the shipped cream with the custard cream.

Whipped cream with strawberries

Mix the other ½ whipped cream with the chopped strawberries

– Assembly

In a trifle bowl layer as described below:

cake – legere cream – cake – whipped cream with strawberries – Italian meringue

Decorate with fresh sliced strawberries and blueberries all around the bowl.

Torch the Italian meringue.

And it is ready to go!

– If you enjoy this dessert, you might want to look at these…

Thank you for visiting Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!