AD - I have been financially compensated to produce this content, as well as any shares on my social media which pertain to this recipe related content. This is an entry into the Opies food bloggers competition using their Alcoholic Fruits. All photos and ingredients used are my own (except the Opies fruits which were kindly gifted to me to use for recipe creation) and were bought by me to make this vegan trifle. I hope you'll enjoy it and try it for yourself!
Sometimes as a vegan, there are certain dishes or baking goods which can leave you wondering, "how can I make that vegan?" and I have to admit that I've been thinking this recently, looking longingly all the delicious cakes and biscuits and walking straight past them.
There are definitely some delicious desserts which I've been missing since going vegan in January, namely the desserts of childhood like trifle! My Grandma always used to make one at Christmas and in the past I too have attempted to make my own, but it was never as good as my Grandma's used to be! Mind you, she did get a bit carried away with the sherry!
So, it's with this in mind that I decided to veganise a trifle, using Opies Alcoholic Fruits as the hero ingredient. Peaches in Courvoiser make the perfect addition to any trifle or dessert to be served at your dinner party or just to impress your friends and family with at your next gathering!
"Opies Peaches with Courvoisier, are made with soft peach halves steeped in probably the most well-known French Cognac – Courvoisier. Most often enjoyed with ice cream or sorbets, the peaches are a great standby to make a quick Peach Melba."
Opies make this easy as the fruit is steeped in alcohol, (Only 5%!) all you need to do is soak the sponge of the trifle in the Courvoiser, use the peaches themselves for the fruit layer, then layer up with jelly and custard!
Thankfully one of the easiest desserts to veganise!
Making the sponge
Veganising a sponge recipe is actually quite simple, just swap out the dairy margarine for a dairy free version, omit the eggs and instead use plant milk with a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and add in a teaspoon of bicarb.
I used a recipe I found on the BBC Good Food website for a basic sponge to form the base of my trifle, seeing as it's going to be covered it didn't matter how it looked - so long as it was cooked all the way through!
Recipe
Ingredients
150g dairy free spread
300ml plant based milk (I used soya)
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 vanilla pod (or a teaspoon of vanilla extract!)
300g self raising flour
200g golden caster sugar (or light brown sugar)
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
Method
Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Line the bases of 2 x 20cm sandwich tins with baking parchment and grease with a little of the dairy-free spread.
Put the dairy-free milk into a jug and add the vinegar, leave for a few minutes until it looks a little lumpy. Put half of the vanilla seeds and all the other cake ingredients into a large bowl then pour over the milk mixture. Using electric beaters or a wooden spoon, beat everything together until smooth.
Divide the mix between your two tins then bake in the centre of the oven for 30-35 mins or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes comes out cleanly. Leave them in their tins until cool enough to handle then carefully turn out onto wire racks to cool completely.
Once the sponge cake is cooled you can cut it to the size of the dish you're using and soak it in alcohol! I used the Courvoiser from the jar and left it overnight.
The Jelly
To make the jelly I bought some Agar Agar powder and followed a simple recipe which consisted of:
240mls water
240mls fruit juice - I used grape juice
50g white sugar
1 packet of Agar Agar (equal to 1 teaspoon)
I added all the ingredients to the pan and waited. Boiled for 2 minutes then poured into a jar to refrigerate. Simples!
Topping
Following the jelly, I topped off my trifle with custard, now I could have made my own here but for ease I just bought a little pint of Alpro Soya Custard.
This meant that I didn't have fuss finishing it off and could concentrate on making it look good!
After topping with custard, I just used up the last few peaches in the jar, chopped them up and laid them on top to finish off the trifle. I think it looks really good and am very pleased with how it turned out!
I hope I have convinced you to perhaps give my vegan trifle a go! It's not that much more effort than making the original version but (in my opinion!) tastes better and means you can have seconds! This is my entry into the Opies food blogger's club fruity recipe competition!
Read my previous post, using Opies Black Cherries in Kirsch to make a delicious Black Forest Cake!
*You can purchase these Opies Alcoholic Fruits in Tesco. Cherries in Kirsch are also available.*
Wish me luck!
Love, Sarah xoxoxo
