Chocolate Orange Trifle

If you're looking for a dessert to add to your buffet table for Boxing Day, look no further - I have just the thing!

Last Christmas a chocolate orange trifle was requested by certain family members, so I started searching the net for a decent recipe. What a waste of time! Every recipe I unearthed had jelly in it; well, quite apart from it not being veggie, I've always thought jelly has no place in a trifle. I found a few chocolate and cherry concoctions, but other than that there really didn't seem to be much else out there.

So, it looked like it was down to me. After some experimenting, I can now present....drum roll, please....Denise's Definitive Chocolate Orange Trifle!

It's a bit of a cheek to actually call this a 'recipe' because all you have to do is assemble a few ingredients. It looks impressive and tastes divine, but it's embarrassingly easy to do - it probably took me longer to type this than it did to actually make it!

Update 24.3.13

I've just seen my trifle recipe on the Waitrose website...woo-hoo!! I wonder how long it's been there? I entered it in a competion they ran to find new chocolate recipes; needless to say I didn't win, but at least I've received fame by proxy!


4 double-choc-chip muffins
3 tbsp orange marmalade (sieved to remove peel)
4 tbsp Cointreau
2 tins mandarin oranges in juice (drain and reserve juice)***
200g bar of Green & Blacks Maya Gold chocolate
250g tub of mascarpone
400g pot of ready-made vanilla custard
250ml double cream

Cut the muffins into thick slices, spread each slice with the sieved marmalade, stick them back together again, then break them into chunky pieces and put into a deep glass serving bowl. Drizzle over the Cointreau and add some of the reserved mandarin juice if the muffins still look a bit dry, or if the mood takes you, you could just use more Cointreau...! Scatter the drained mandarins on top of the muffins making sure some go right up to the glass.

Break the chocolate up into chunks and reserve 30g for later. Melt the chocolate over a pan of very hot (not boiling) water, stirring until it’s smooth. Leave to cool for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, put the mascarpone and custard into a large bowl and beat together until combined. Add the cooled chocolate and mix well. Pour this gorgeous mixture over the mandarins and muffins. At this point feel free to lick the bowl – cook’s perks! Whip the cream until just floppy, do not over-whip or it'll turn to butter, then spoon onto the chocolate layer.

Chop the reserved chocolate with a sharp knife and scatter the chocolate shards over the cream. Cover loosely with clingfilm and chill for a couple of hours before serving.

Serves 8

***If you happen to have one of those jars of clementines in liqueur that are always on the supermarket shelves around Christmas time they would be ideal in this recipe. Unfortunately, I was unable to get my hands on one so I was forced into using mandarins instead. You could try using fresh orange segments but I think they would be a bit too sharp.