Christmas Trifle – Vegan & Gluten Free

Well I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas with family. Or if you don’t celebrate Christmas I hope you’ve enjoyed some quality family time and of course eaten lots of delicious Vegan treats.

I had aspirations of sharing half a dozen vegan & gluten free Christmas Recipes but then life got in the way and I wasn’t able to share it in time. However, I did take pics and I DO have the recipes, so I will release them over the need week.

Speaking of…. it can sometimes be a challenge finding vegan alternatives to dishes we had pre-vegan days. It can be even MORE of a challenge when you’re gluten free too.

My most favourite Christmas dessert has always been Trifle. With a layer of Jam Sponge, a layer of lime jelly & raspberry jelly, fresh custard with crushed nuts. I bet for some of you, you gave up on the idea of ever being able to have a Christmas Trifle for dessert right? I mean with normal Jelly having gelatine in it which isn’t Vegan. Check out a short clip here if you would like to know how Gelatine is made and what from.

Custards in Australia are pretty much all made with dairy except for a select few Custard Powders that you have to mix up yourself.

I was Gluten Free for several years before I turned Vegan and that alone was a challenge as you couldn’t easily find Jam Spring Roll. One year I spotted a packet mix, the next year it was gone. So I’d often have to try alternative cakes for my trifle and it never QUITE tasted right. So when I went Vegan 2 and a half years ago I thought finding Vegan Jelly and Custard AND gluten free cake/sponge alternative was a lost cause….but it was always one of my absolute favourite desserts at Christmas, so I was determined to still try and find a way.

This is what I came up with and have had for the past 3 Christmases and gotta say I’m pretty darn happy with it. SO YUMMY!! No missing out for me 🙂

The Custard: Orgran Instant Custard Mix. I found mine at an IGA but sometimes you can spot Orgran products at Coles.

The Jelly: Queens – Jel-It-In is a Vegan/Vegetarian Gelling Powder. Just add flavoured cordial or juice with water to the powder and set.

The Sponge: I used a Coles Brand of vanilla cake which has a soft sponge texture and then I spread some jam on it. It asks for eggs which I used Orgran Egg Replacer (See below), Butter which I used Nuttelex and Milk which I used Almond Milk.

Then can’t have trifle without some peaches and juices in it.

Let the layering begin!

Recipe

Prep Time:

Approx. 1 hour to bake cake and 10 minutes to cut up and put jam on pieces

5-10 minutes to prepare jelly + Chill time,

5 minutes to prepare custard

Layering time – 10-15 minutes & then refrigerate overnight for flavours to seep in and have optimum flavour although you can eat straight away if you like.

Ingredients:

Sponge:

Vanilla Cake Mix – (making sure it’s Gluten Free & Vegan. You can make one from scratch but given there are a few components to this recipe I chose the simpler route to save some time);

2 Egg Replacer – Equivalent to 2 eggs; (use an alternative like chia/water mix if you can’t find the Orgran Egg Replacer)

2/3 Cup (150ml) – Plant-Based Milk (I used Almond Milk);

3 Tbsp Vegan Butter melted;

Jelly:

• 2 x 100mls Flavoured Cordials or Juice (I chose Lime & Raspberry. Don’t choose overly acidic ones like Lemon or Orange or it might not set properly. You can use more cordial if you prefer a stronger flavour);
• 2 x Sachets of Jel-It-In (1 for each jelly flavour);
• 2x 300mls Water

Custard:

• Instant Custard Powder – I used 2 Tbsps
• 140mls – Plant-based Milk (packet recommends Rice Milk but I preferred Almond Milk)

Other ingredients:

• Raspberry or Strawberry Jam/Conserve (double check it’s Vegan, some might include gelatine);
• Can of sliced Peaches in Juice – keep the juice as well
• Crushed Nuts (usually is crushed peanuts) – to sprinkle across the top ;

How to Prepare:

Sponge:

1. Prepare the cake mix as per the back of the packet;
2. I just melted the butter in microwave;
3. Mixed up the egg replacer;
4. Then combined the cake mix, egg replacer, melted butter & plant-based milk.
5. Baked in the oven for around 45 minutes;
6. Once the cake has cooled some, I sliced it into bite-size pieces and spread some raspberry/strawberry jam on them and place them in the bottom of the Trifle bowl and around the inner edges;
7. I use some of the peach juice and drizzle it over the sponge pieces and then place in fridge while you work on the Jelly.

Jelly:

Note: Now I must admit I’ve only used the Jel-It-In gelling powder on one other occasion and I’m still working to get the perfect ratio of water/cordial and Jel-It-In as sometimes when I make the Jelly it doesn’t set hard enough if i have too much liquid like 500mls even though when I look on the Queens website it says it can take that much liquid. So if you use my ratios and find that your jelly doesn’t set first time around, then you can add another 1/2 Jel-It-In sachet to the jelly and bring it to the boil again then chill. You don’t have to totally throw out the mix.

1. Add the 100mls of cordial and 300mls of water into a saucepan as well as 1 sachet of Jel-It-In and bring to the boil and let it boil for 1 minute then take off the stove and allow to cool for 5-10 minutes and transfer to a bowl to go into fridge;
2. Let it chill for around an hour and check on the jelly. I like to add the jelly to the trifle bowl with the jam sponge when its still only half set so that it layers better. The jelly will set the rest of the way in the trifle.

Custard:

1. Add 2 Tbsp of Custard Powder to the 140mls of Plant based milk and whisk till combined. If it’s instant custard powder it will take about a minute to put together.

Putting it all together:

1. As mentioned in the sponge section, layer the piece of jam sponge around the bottom and sides of the chosen trifle bowl;
2. Drizzle Peach juice over the sponge and allow to soak in;
3. Add some of the sliced/chopped Peaches over the sponge. Use as much or as little as per preference;
4. When the Jelly’s are half set, portion out a layer of the green jelly;
5. Then a layer of the custard;
6. Then add a layer of the red jelly;
7. Add the layers of jelly and custard till you reach the top of bowl and cover with glad wrap and put in the fridge to set. The Trifle will taste best if you let it set overnight;
8. I find I still like to have some leftover jelly and custard set aside because the sponge can soak up a fair amount and can be nice to add a bit extra over the top when serving up. So it’s up to you if you make extra portions. Just repeat above process if you like;

Now it’s ready to serve. I add sprinkled chopped nuts across the top on the individual servings.