Juicy fresh fruit scattered on top, whipped cream oozing from the layers, crumbles of nutty flakes to finish. A classic dessert that’s well loved, but there are so many ways to give this festive favourite a flavour spin. These recipes are just for starters (or should that be ‘afters’?). Go on, dig deep…

Ingredients:
500g pitted cherries
50ml brandy
150g mascarpone
150g double cream
20g caster sugar
400g thick vanilla custard
300g Madeira cake
300g cherry compote
100g white chocolate

Method:

1. Start by halving the pitted cherries and putting them into a mixing bowl with the brandy. Mix well and set aside, allowing the fruit to steep while you get the rest of the ingredients together.

2. In a separate bowl, use an electric whisk to whip the mascarpone, double cream and caster sugar until soft and aerated – be careful not to over-whip as you want soft peaks and no splitting.

3. Gently fold the custard into the mascarpone mixture until just combined. Roughly cut the sponge cake up into 2–3cm cubes and then assemble the trifle by alternating spoons of the mascarpone custard and compote into the base of your trifle bowl. Follow that with sponge and cherries.

4. Keep building up the layers, making sure you reserve enough mascarpone custard for the final layer and save a handful of halved cherries to top the trifle off later. Refrigerate for two to four hours.

5. While the trifle rests in the fridge, make the chocolate shards by carefully melting the white chocolate in a bain-marie or microwave and get a sheet of greaseproof paper ready. When the chocolate is melted, pour it onto the flat greaseproof paper and then use a knife to spread it about 1mm thick. While it’s still warm, roll the chocolate and greaseproof up into a scroll and refrigerate until needed.

6. When you are ready to serve, take your scroll of chocolate and unwrap it so you are left with thin, snappy shards of chocolate. Decorate with the last handful of cherries and scatter over the chocolate pieces.