Gluten Free & God Seeking: Terrific Gluten Free Strawberry & Peach Trifle

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Terrific Gluten Free Strawberry & Peach Trifle

The first time I had trifle was when I was in elementary school and my Aunt Shirley who is from England made it for dessert. I never forgot it, wow what a dessert! It's an amazing combo of cake smothered with pudding, fruit, and whipped cream--yum!

Anyway about a month ago one of the Christian women I meet with on Friday nights brought it for dessert. It looked incredible, and all I could have was some of the whipped cream and fruit off the top. If you're gluten free, you know what it's like to drool over everyone else's plate while you have to go without or have something else. That's when I decided I was going to make a gluten free trifle.

To make this completely from scratch you will have to make both the sponge cake and the custard the day before. I used the recipe of the back of Bob's Red Mill sorghum flour for the pound cake recipe. I was short on time, so I used some gluten free custard I picked up from the Co-op. I made this for father's day dessert, and it was both very beautiful and delicious!!

Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free Pound Cake

1. Prepare dry ingredients - In a large bowl whisk together:
(1) 1 cup white rice flour, 1/2 cup sorghum flour, and 1/4 cup cornstarch/tapioca starch
(2) Stir in leavening: 2 t baking powder and 1 t xanthan gum

2. Cream butter and sugar:
(1) Beat 1 cup of butter that's at room temperature until it's creamy and smooth.
(2) Add 1 cup of white sugar and beat into the butter until light and fluffy about 5 minutes.
(3) Add 4 eggs ONE at a time and beat well after each one is added.
(4) Then add 2 t of vanilla extract and blend in.

3. Combine: Add the dry ingredients to the wet and blend until fully mixed.

4. Spread into a 9" loaf pan and bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes.

Terrific Gluten Free Trifle

1. Prepare your favorite gluten free vanilla pudding.

2. Cut cubes of pound cake:

(1) Slice 3/4 of the pound cake in half lengthwise. (I couldn't use all of the cake. One recipe I looked up for trifle said you just need 6 cups of 1" cubes and the rest you can use for something else.)

(2) Spread with jam

(3) Cut into 1" cubes - I made mine a little bigger.

2. Line the bowl with half of the cubes

3. Make first layer of custard and fruit
(1) Spoon half of the custard you made over the sponge cake cubes.
(2) Arrange drained sliced peaches and freshly cut strawberries over the top of custard. (You can use any fruit combination would like!)

4. Make second layer of sponge cake, custard, and fruit

(1) Lay sponge cake cubes around the outside of the bowl

(2) Spoon second layer of custard over the top

(3) Arrange a layer of peaches and strawberries

5. Whipping the cream:

(1) Beat 2 cups of cream until stiff

(2) Gradually add 1/4 cup of powdered sugar beating until stiff peaks form

(3) Spread over the top of the last layer

(4) Sprinkle with slivered almonds.

6. Refrigerate until ready to serve at least 4 hours for best results! Make sure when you serve that you go down through all the layers!!

Notes: I saw in one of my cookbooks a recipe for tropical trifle with pineapple, bananas, and strawberries. They used the pineapple juice and some orange juice to spoon over the cake cubes. I'm definitely going to try that and add a bit of coconut to it, too!