Recipe: Lemon & Lime Vodka Trifle #TipsTuesdays

Welcome to Tips Tuesday 34. Today I would like to share with you a recipe for a wonderful, adult trifle. If you are making it for children or those who don't partake of alcohol, just replace the vodka with water and it will be just as tasty, without the added kick.

Lemon & Lime Vodka Trifle

This makes 12 individual trifles - if you want to make one big one, just put it all into a big bowl. You will probably need to up the number of trifle sponges and reduce the amount of custard.

Ingredients

• 1 lemon jelly (jello) 135g cubes
• 1 lime jelly (jello) 135g cubes
• 200ml vodka for jelly
• 4 trifle sponges (each cut into 12 cubes)
• 50ml vodka for dipping sponges
• 1.5kg Ambrosia Devon Custard or equiv (you can make your own, but I tried and failed so I bought it :) - Mary Berry has a good custard recipe for one of her trifles here.)
• 7 tsps lemon extract
• 600ml double (heavy) cream
• a few small lemon jelly sweets (optional)
• sprinkles to decorate

Instructions

1. Put some of the vodka in a shallow plate, with a drop of lemon extract and stir to mix. 
2. Take one of the cut up trifle sponges and allow the pieces to soak up the lemon vodka.
3. Put four sponge cubes in each of four glasses/bowls you are using to hold your trifle.
4. Repeat steps 1 to 4 so you have four soaked sponges in each glass. (You can just use a drop of lemon extract on each sponge cube if not using the alcohol. Likewise just soak the whole sponges if doing one big trifle.)
5. Dissolve the lemon jelly cubes with 285ml boiling water. (This is half the total amount of water suggested on the packet to make the lemon very intense.)
6. Using a ladle pour equal amounts of jelly into each of the glasses, over the soaked sponge. (If doing just one trifle simply pour the jelly over the trifle sponges into your large bowl).
7. Put the glasses in the fridge for at least an hour to set.
8. Dissolve the lime jelly cubes in 150ml water.
9. Add 200ml of vodka and 100ml cold water and mix. (300ml of cold water if not using vodka.)
10. Using a ladle pour equal amounts of lime jelly into each glass.
11. Since there is no whole fruit in this, if you want to make it more fun, you can add lemon jelly sweets to this layer or mandarin segments might work too if you want real fruit - just pop them in when its cooling - I used the small fake lemon segments that can go on cakes. It just adds another texture in there.
12. Put the glasses back into the fridge to set for at least an hour.
13. Mix the custard with the lemon extract (If it is not lemony enough for your taste, add a few more drops to the mix - just remember you can always add more, but you can't take it out so taste as you add.)
14. Leave in the fridge until an hour or so before you are ready to serve.
15. Whisk the cream until it is in stiff peaks.
16. Pipe or spoon the cream onto each trifle and add sprinkles for decoration.

These are very straightforward recipe that can be fun for adults and children alike, with just a couple of tweaks. It works well in clear plastic cups - because as with all trifles, it's fun to see the layers.