A Cheat's Christmas Trifle

Many cooks avoid making a trifle for Christmas because of the time it takes - time that could be better spent drinking!

Here is the easiest recipe in the world  and is inspired by Terry's Chocolate Orange, everyone's favourite at this time of year. Go on, have a go, you won't regret it for all the plaudits you'll get. Make it the day before you need it and chill overnight. It will keep for 3 days in the fridge.

Ingredients:- (serves 12)
100g dark chocolate - chopped
500ml ready-made custard
400ml double cream
finely grated zest of 1 orange
2tbs icing sugar
1 x 375g jumbo chocolate Swiss roll - cut into 2cm slices
2 x 298g tins of mandarin segments in fruit juice
50g marmalade
1 x Terry's Chocolate Orange - broken into segments

Method:-

• Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water, ensure that the bowl does not touch the water. Alternatively, melt the chocolate in a bowl in the microwave in short bursts, stirring regularly. Leave to cool for 5 minutes, then stir through the custard.
• Meanwhile, put the cream in another large bowl with the orange zest and icing sugar. Whip, using an electric beater until you get soft peaks.
• Start building the trifle in a large glass trifle dish or glass bowl. Lay the Swiss roll slices across the base and up the sides of the dish. Drizzle over the juice from 1 tin of mandarins to soak into the sponge. Spread the marmalade over the sponge with the back of a spoon and scatter over the drained mandarin segments from the tin. Spoon over all the chocolate custard.
• Drain the other tin of mandarins, discarding the juice, and layer the fruit on top, reserving six segments for decoration. Then layer on half of the chocolate orange segments. Spoon over the whipped cream and decorate with the reserved mandarin segments. Use the remaining chocolate orange over the top of the trifle.
• Chill for at least 4 hours or until ready to serve.  

My thanks to Chelsie Collins for this super recipe. It's so easy!