Chocolate-hazelnut and salted caramel trifle
Serves: 10
Prep time: 40 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Martin Poole
Chocolate-hazelnut and salted caramel trifle
Recipe by Sarah Cook
This decadent Christmas dessert is inspired by everyone's favourite festive chocolate - the purple one from Quality Street!
Serves: 10
Prep time: 40 minsTotal time: 
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Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
584Kcal
Fat
38gr
Saturates
24gr
Carbs
36gr
Sugars
30gr
Fibre
1gr
Protein
6gr
Salt
0.6gr
Sarah Cook
Sarah, a former food editor, has now been writing and styling recipes for over 10 years. Born in NZ, to Irish-English immigrants, and married to a Polish-Scot, her food is as diverse as her family, with a particular passion for baking mash-ups.
Sarah Cook
Sarah, a former food editor, has now been writing and styling recipes for over 10 years. Born in NZ, to Irish-English immigrants, and married to a Polish-Scot, her food is as diverse as her family, with a particular passion for baking mash-ups.
Ingredients
- 85g blanched hazelnuts
- 1 x 400g pack chocolate sponge mix
- 2 medium eggs
- 750g Taste the Difference custard
- 100g chocolate-hazelnut spread
- 75g dark chocolate drops or chunks
- 3 tbsp Baileys or Kahlua, optional
- 1 x 260g jar Taste the Difference salted caramel sauce
- 200ml whipping cream, well chilled
- 200ml milk, well chilled
- 1 x 54g sachet butterscotch whippy dessert
- a few Quality Street Purple One chocolates to serve, optional
Step by step
Get ahead
Prepare to the end of step 5 up to 24 hours ahead. Decorate up to an hour before serving. Leftovers keep in the fridge for 2 days
- Heat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4 and spread the nuts out in a baking tin. Roast for 10 minutes, shaking halfway, until golden, then tip into a bowl to cool. Leave the oven on and grease and line the base of a 20cm round cake tin.
- Roughly chop the cooled nuts, and add two-thirds of them to a mixing bowl with the chocolate sponge mixture, the eggs and 120ml cold water (as per the sponge mix pack instructions). Beat until you have a smooth batter, scrape into the cake tin, and bake for 30-35 minutes until risen and cooked in the centre. Cool completely.
- Meanwhile, put the custard, chocolate- hazelnut spread and dark chocolate in a pan. Heat gently, stirring, until the chocolate has melted into the custard. Press a sheet of clingfilm directly onto the custard’s surface and leave to cool.
- Thickly slice half the cooled cake into chunky pieces (the rest can be enjoyed as a teatime treat), and cut one of these into little cubes. Keep these aside for decoration and arrange the chunks in the base of a trifle dish. Pour over the Baileys or Kahlua if using.
- Slightly warm the caramel sauce then spoon most of it over the cake layer, letting it drip down between the cake chunks. When the custard is cool, spoon this all over the top of the caramel-cake layer and put back in the fridge to chill for at least half an hour.
- Whisk together the cream, milk and butterscotch dessert powder in a large mixing bowl, until peaks form. Pile it on top of the trifle, cover and chill for at least another hour.
- To serve, drizzle with the last of the caramel sauce, scatter with the reserved hazelnuts and cake cubes, and decorate with a few purple Quality Street chocolates if you like.
