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Gingerbread trifle
Serves: 8-10
Prep time: 1 hr 30 minsTotal time: 
Recipe photograph by Dan Jones
Gingerbread trifle
This gingerbread trifle recipe is a real showstopper for Christmas
Serves: 8-10
Prep time: 1 hr 30 minsTotal time:
See more recipes
Nutritional information (per serving)
Calories
792Kcal
Fat
49gr
Saturates
31gr
Carbs
76gr
Sugars
53gr
Fibre
1gr
Protein
11gr
Salt
0.5gr
Katy Greenwood
Food stylist and recipe writer Katy has been in the industry for over 10 years. When not working she can usually be found in her own kitchen baking sweet treats.
See more of Katy Greenwood’s recipes
Katy Greenwood
Food stylist and recipe writer Katy has been in the industry for over 10 years. When not working she can usually be found in her own kitchen baking sweet treats.
See more of Katy Greenwood’s recipes
Ingredients
For the gingerbread men:
- 65g unsalted butter
- 50g light muscovado sugar
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- 150g plain flour
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 x tube writing icing, to decorate
For the gingerbread swiss roll:
- 75g golden syrup
- 25g treacle
- 50g butter
- 4 large eggs
- 100g dark muscovado sugar
- 100g plain flour
- ¼ tsp baking powder
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
For the buttercream:
- 1 ball stem ginger, chopped, plus ½ tsp syrup from the jar
- 50g unsalted butter
- 75g icing sugar
To assemble:
- 2 tbsp syrup from the stem ginger jar
- 3 sheets gelatine
- 2 x 500g pots Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Madagascan vanilla custard
- 600ml double cream
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- 4 tbsp Irish cream liqueur (optional)
Step by step
Get ahead
Make up to the end of step 7 a day ahead. Bring to room temperature for an hour before topping with the cream and serving. The filled and rolled swiss roll can also be frozen.
- First make the gingerbread men. Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas 6. In a small pan, melt together the butter, sugar and syrup. Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda and ginger into a bowl and mix in the melted ingredients to make a soft dough.
- Roll the dough out between 2 sheets of baking paper to about 5mm thick. Transfer to a baking tray on the baking paper, leaving on the top sheet, and bake for 10 minutes. While the dough bakes, get your gingerbread men cutter ready. When the dough comes out of the oven, immediately cut out as many gingerbread men as you can. As the dough cools, this will get harder, but it will still be possible. Keep some of the off-cuts to use to decorate the trifle. Once the gingerbread men are completely cool decorate with writing icing.
- Make the swiss roll. Turn the oven down to 190°C, fan 170°C, gas 5. Grease and line a 20cm x 30cm swiss roll tin with baking paper, then grease the baking paper. Put the golden syrup, treacle and butter in a small pan and heat gently until melted together. Set aside to cool a little.
- Put the eggs and sugar in a large bowl and whisk using an electric hand whisk until fluffy, doubled in size and light in colour and when you remove the beaters they leave a ribbon trail on top of the mixture for a couple of seconds. This will take about 10 minutes. Sieve over the flour, baking powder and ginger, then pour the melted butter mixture around the sides of the bowl so that it trickles down into the whisked eggs. Gently fold together, then pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 12-14 minutes until springy.
- While the sponge cooks, lay a piece of baking paper out on your work surface and sprinkle with the caster sugar. When the sponge is baked, remove from the oven and immediately turn out onto the sugar-sprinkled paper. Then, using a small serrated knife, score the surface of the sponge, about 1.5cm from the edge, along one of the long sides. Using the paper underneath, roll up from this side. Leave wrapped in the paper on a wire rack until completely cool.
- For the buttercream, in the small bowl of a food processor whiz the stem ginger with the syrup, then add the butter and whiz to combine, and finally whiz in the icing sugar. Once the sponge is cool, unroll and spread the buttercream over the top before rolling back up again. Slice into about 20 pieces and arrange around the bottom of a trifle dish. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of syrup from the stem ginger jar.
- Put the gelatine in a bowl, cover with cold water and leave to soften for 5 minutes. Meanwhile heat the custard until just hot. Once the gelatine is softened, stir it into the custard, then leave to cool, covering the surface with clingfilm to stop a skin forming. Once the custard is cool, but not set, pour it into the trifle dish over the swiss rolls and leave to set in the fridge for about 2 hours.
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Once the custard has set and just before serving whip the cream with the icing sugar and cream liqueur, if using, until just holding soft peaks. Spoon over the custard and decorate with crushed gingerbread offcuts and the gingerbread men.
More trifle ideas:
Chocolate Orange trifle
Tiramisu trifle