Trifle was a dessert my mom would often make in the summer and a favourite of mine as a kid. Lots of berries, lemon pound cake and mounds of whip cream…mmmmmm!

A few weeks ago I was asked to bring dessert to a friend’s backyard pool party and BBQ. I knew that I wanted to make something with lots of berries but it also had to be gluten, dairy, nut, and egg free to cater to all the guests’ food allergies. I immediately thought of my mom’s trifle recipe but I needed to give it a make-over to be allergen friendly. So I got to work and this berry trifle with lemon cream was born!

P.S. – It was so good everyone went back for seconds…

Cooking + chilling time: 2.5 hrs

Yield: 12 -15 servings (This recipe makes a large trifle. If you want to decrease the size, just halve the ingredients.)

Lemon pound cake ingredients:

1 cup vegan butter room temperature

1 cup organic cane sugar or sucanat

4 Tbsp ground flax

1 cup almond milk

Zest of 2 lemons

6 Tbsp of lemon juice (approx.  juice of 2 lemons)

12 Tbsp aquafaba (This is the liquid from a can of chickpeas – it may sound weird but it works to bind the cake like eggs would)

3.5 cups of Bob’s Red Mill organic all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp turmeric for colour

Lemon cream ingredients:

2 cans of coconut cream

zest of 4 lemons

1 cup lemon juice (approx.  juice of 4 lemons)

3-4 Tbsp cornstarch (you can also use arrowroot or tapioca starch here as a substitute)

1 cup maple syrup

Berry mixture ingredients:

4 cups fresh blueberries

4 cups fresh raspberries

1 tsp vanilla bean paste (or vanilla extract if you can’t find paste)

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/4 cup lemon juice (approx.  juice of 1 lemon)

1 Tbsp lemon zest to garnish top of trifle

Instructions:

To prepare the cake:

Preheat oven to 350C. Prepare a large rectangular baking dish. I used a 10″x13″ sheet cake pan.

Add the butter and sugar to a large mixing bowl and cream together by using an electric mixer on medium speed until fluffy.

In a separate small mixing bowl, whisk together the almond milk and flax seed. Set aside to thicken.

Grate the lemon zest and add it and the lemon juice to the creamed mixture mixing with the electric mixer for 30-40 seconds..

Once flaxseed and almond milk have thickened, add to the creamed mixture. Mix again on medium speed with the electric mixer for another 30-40 seconds.

Slowly add the aquafaba to the creamed mixture 1 Tbsp at a time and beat for 20-30 seconds in between.

In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder and turmeric.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients 1/2 cup at a time while using the mixer on low speed to incorporate the two together.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50-60 mins or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

To make lemon cream:

While cake is baking prepare the lemon cream by adding together coconut cream and lemon zest in a medium sized sauce pan.

In a small bowl whisk together lemon juice and cornstarch to thoroughly dissolve.

Add the cornstarch mixture to the cream mixture and heat on medium high, whisking as the mixture thickens (add 3-4 Tbsp depending on desired thickness). When the mixture has come to a slight boil, reduce the heat and add the maple syrup. Continue to whisk to incorporate the maple syrup.

Pour mixture into another bowl and set in the fridge to cool and set for 30mins.

To make berry mixture and assemble trifle:

Prepare the berries by mixing berries, lemon juice, maple syrup and vanilla bean paste together and set in the fridge until ready to assemble trifle.

Remove the cake from the oven and let cake cool on a wire rack.

When cake has cooled cut the cake in small 1-2″ cubes.

Now we are ready to assemble the trifle. Begin by placing a layer of cake on the bottom of a large glass trifle bowl (or any large glass transparent dessert bowl).

Add a layer of lemon cream on top of the cake layer.

Add a layer of berries on top of the cream layer.

Then add another layer of cake and repeat to create as many layers as you like. You can see from the picture that I created only two layers of each – cake, lemon cream and berries.

Garnish with lemon zest. Chill in the fridge for at least 1 hr and then serve.