Homemade treacle ginger cake, black cherries, amaretti, custard and cream are the layers in Hairy Bikers ginger cake trifle, finished with slices of stem ginger. In Ultimate Comfort Food it’s called ginger cake and black cherry trifle, and it makes 8 portions of about 440 calories in roughly 3½ hours.
For them, cherries and gingerbread “make such a good flavour combination”, and a trifle is “the perfect pudding at Christmas”. So the base is ginger cake sandwiched with black cherry jam, not sponge fingers, while their Go West version on BBC Food adds honeycomb.
Sprinkle the cherries with sugar and leave them for the full half hour, because that’s what makes the syrup. Then that cherry syrup goes into the sherry and soaks the cake in two stages, once under the cherries and once over the amaretti.
Hairy Bikers Ginger Cake Trifle
Description
Jam-sandwiched fingers of dark ginger cake drink up a cherry and sherry syrup, then amaretti, custard and whipped cream pile on top. So it suits a crowd, and the cake is happy to be baked the day before.
Ingredients
For the ginger cake
For the trifle
For the honeycomb (optional, from their Go West version)
Instructions
- Make the ginger cake: Preheat the oven to 170°C, 150°C fan, Gas 3½, and line a large 900g (2lb) loaf tin with baking parchment. Then whisk the flour, ginger, bicarbonate of soda and a good pinch of salt together in a bowl until lump free.
- Melt and mix: Gently melt the golden syrup, treacle, sugar and butter in a saucepan, then pour it into a bowl and whisk to combine. Then whisk in the milk, followed by the egg, and finally the flour mixture to form a smooth batter.
- Bake and cool: Pour the batter into the tin and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until well risen and springy to the touch. Then leave it to cool completely in the tin, which takes about an hour.
- Sugar the cherries: About half an hour before the cake is cold, sprinkle the cherries with the caster sugar and leave them to stand. Then, once the cake is cold, thinly slice about 250g of it, just under half the loaf.
- Build the base: Spread half the cake slices with jam and sandwich them together with the rest. Then cut them into fingers and arrange them over the base of a trifle bowl of about 2 litres.
- Soak and layer: Strain the cherries, keeping the syrup the sugar has drawn out, and mix that syrup with the sherry. Then pour half over the cake, top with the cherries and add the amaretti. And pour over the rest of the sherry and syrup.
- Custard and cream: Pour the cold custard over the trifle, cooling homemade custard completely first so it doesn’t melt the cream. Then whisk the cream to soft peaks, where the tips just flop over, and spread it evenly over the custard.
- Finish and chill: Arrange the sliced stem ginger over the top. Then chill the trifle for at least an hour before serving.
- Make the honeycomb (optional): Butter a 20cm square tin, then stir the sugar and golden syrup in a deep pan over a gentle heat until dissolved. Then simmer to an amber caramel, taking care because boiling sugar is extremely hot. So off the heat, beat in the bicarbonate of soda until foaming, then scrape it into the tin to set for 1 to 1½ hours. And break it over the trifle just before serving.
FAQs
Is this the same as their gingerbread and black cherry trifle?
Nearly, since BBC Food carries a version from their Go West series called gingerbread and black cherry trifle. And the cake, cherries, amaretti and custard match, but it uses a touch less sherry, serves 6 and adds honeycomb.
That honeycomb is the optional last step in the card, and it takes 1 to 1½ hours to set, so make it early. Then keep it in an airtight tin, because honeycomb pulls in moisture and turns sticky on damp cream.
Can I use a shop-bought ginger cake?
Yes, they suggest it themselves, saying “you could always buy a Jamaican ginger cake instead” to cut down on prep. And most UK supermarkets sell one, which saves the baking and the hour of cooling, though check you have 250g.
Or use their British Classics ginger cake, a hotter traybake with cayenne and a jar of stem ginger. Meanwhile, the Ultimate Comfort Food loaf makes about 600g, so more than double what you need, and the rest is good sliced with butter.
Can I make it the day before?
Yes, since it needs at least an hour in the fridge anyway, and covered it keeps happily overnight. So it’s a good one to finish the evening before a party.
The cake can be baked a day or two ahead as well, wrapped once it’s cold. Then the work splits into a short baking session and a quick assembly.
Can I make it without alcohol, or with frozen cherries?
Frozen cherries are fine, as the recipe says, and they give up plenty of juice as they thaw in the sugar. But give them a little longer if they’re still icy after half an hour.
For an alcohol-free version, swap the 50ml of sherry for 50ml of cherry or apple juice. Then mix it with the cherry syrup and carry on as written.
How does it compare with their black forest trifle?
Their black forest trifle from British Classics is the richer one, with Kirsch-soaked brownies and a homemade chocolate custard at about 1,060 calories a portion. So this ginger version is far lighter, at less than half that.
Both lean on black cherries and amaretti, so the flavours overlap more than you’d think. And the rest of your stem ginger jar goes into their sticky ginger pudding, which uses 7 balls between the sponge and the sauce.
