St Clement’s coffee and cherry terrific trifle

Oranges and lemons,
Old English nursery rhyme
Say the bells of St. Clement’s.
There are lot of disparate flavours in this pudding – oranges and lemons (hence St Clement), cherries, coffee – and I have to admit to being a bit skeptical when I first experimented with this, but it turned out to be a big success with all the tasters, except those who don’t like coffee. This coffee and cherry trifle tastes terrific, and it looks terrific.
The dish freezes quite well.

Recipe for St Clement’s coffee and cherry trifle
Serves 8
Ingredients
- 2 oranges
- 180 ml/¾ cup limoncello
- 4 tbsps of runny honey
- 200g/7 oz sponge fingers
- 1 tsp vanilla paste
- 180 ml/¾ cup real coffee (filter), not instant
- 250g/8 oz mascarpone
- 240ml/1 cup yoghurt (I particularly like The Collective)
- 400g tin dark pitted cherries; or about 250g/8 oz frozen pitted cherries
- 100g/4 oz bar white chocolate
Method
- Use a potato peeler to peel off strips of the top layer of the orange peel (avoid the bitter, white pith below), depositing them into a small saucepan. Juice the oranges, and add the juice to the peel. Add 60ml/4 tbsps of limoncello and two tbsps. of honey (lightly oil the measuring spoon first) and simmer to a syrup.
- This is best made in a glass serving bowl, so you can see the layers. Line the base of the bowl with half the sponge fingers. Mix the rest of the limoncello and the coffee. Pour half of this mixture over the sponge finger lining.
- In a small mixing bowl mix together the mascarpone and the yoghurt, the vanilla paste and two tbsps. of honey. Use half of this mixture to cover the sponge finger lining.
- Drain the cherries if you are using tinned ones, and chop roughly into halves. Cover the layer of mascarpone cream that you’ve just smoothed into the bowl.
- Cover with the rest of the sponge fingers, sprinkle over the remainder of the alcoholic coffee mix, and cover the lot with the remaining mascarpone cream.
- Glaze with the syrupy peel. Cover, and chill in the fridge for a few hours, or overnight.
- Just before serving, grate over the white chocolate.