I'm in Strawberry Heaven......

Spring is here.....Flowers are blooming...

It was great having Jo and Jema come visit us for the past ten days. I always love dear friends to visit from Singapore 'cos I'm so deprived to the point that I just can't speak Singlish properly. Besides that, it always brings about a good excuse to go places, eat out and most importantly make nice yummy food just for entertainment sake. Since its strawberry season at the moment, one new dessert recipe that came to mind was strawberry trifle. According to Wiki,

"A trifle is a dessert dish made from thick (or often solidified) custard, fruit, sponge cake, fruit juice or, more recently, jelly (gelatin), and whipped cream. These ingredients are usually arranged in layers with fruit and sponge on the bottom, and custard and cream on top."

And it can double as a aesthetically pretty dessert if layered in a transparent glass bowl. Anyways, I found this refreshing and melt in the mouth strawberry and lemon curd trifle from "Joy of Baking" website ( a favorite website that I adore!) which turned out perfectly. It involves a sponge layer, followed by a strawberry sauce layer, then sprinkled with fresh sliced strawberries, followed with the lemon curd layer and then a whipped cream layer. Then this is repeated till it fills up the bowl.

Being a health nut, I decreased the amount of sugar added to the homemade strawberry sauce and lemon curd to almost half and used light cream instead of the full cream version. To further decrease the fat content, I added only a thin layer of cream just to give a touch of flavor and creaminess. I also added more strawberries than the stated on the recipe just to bulk up the trifle and increase the fiber content of the dessert. And the end result turns out perfect....the trifle turned out to be just right on the sweetness level (I would not add more sugar than what I had added). The tangy-ness of the lemon went well with the strawberry sauce and the cream layer added the right amount of flavor without being too overwhelming rich (I just can't stand the feeling overly rich dessert gives me..). This recipe is a keeper and I would definitely make it again.

My modified ingredient list......

Strawberry & Lemon Curd Trifle
A packet of ladyfinger/ sponge fingers
1 1/2 cup Strawberry sauce (recipe below)

500g fresh strawberry, sliced
1 1/2 cup Lemon Curd
(can be bought from the stores to save time but home made is always the best)

1/2 - 3/4 cup light whipping cream (depends on the size of trifle bowl)
2 tbsp raw sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract (I used a homemade one)

Homemade Strawberry Sauce

570g frozen/ fresh strawberries

1/8-1/4 cups of raw sugar (depending on sweetness of strawberries)

Homemade Lemon Curd

3 eggs
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest
1/3- 1/2 cup raw sugar

(original recipe calls for butter but I made do without that and it still tasted just right. I can just eat it by itself if not for the trifle..)

For specific instructions of how to make the trifle refer to the original recipe here.

I just love how spring brings about the blossoming of flowers which covers our lawn with snow beds of yellow petals.....