The red plums I picked up at the farmer’s market on Friday needed attention. The only logical solution was to make a trifle, a wonderful British invention to use up stale cake (what?) and very ripe fruit. Any summer fruit will work, as will a variety of cakes: genoise, pound, biscuit.
The trick is to get the cake to absorb the fruit, which is often laced with booze. I pureed half of the plums with a little sugar in the Cuisinart. We also had a couple of peaches that weren’t going to keep much longer, so I added those. A dash of Torres Grand Torres because that’s the only fruity liqueur we had on the shelf. It made a lot, so I stored the leftover puree in the freezer and will use for Bellinis or frozen whiskey sours or maybe you don’t drink as much as we do.
You don’t have to use pastry cream, but it’s a nice addition. Beat the whipped cream until pretty thick, adding a bit of sugar.
In a glass bowl with straight sides (or use a pyrex pan), assemble in the following order:
cake
fruit puree
sliced fruit
pastry cream
whipped cream
Repeat until you’re at the top of the bowl. Finish with the whipped cream and one last layer of sliced fruit. Chill at least an hour before serving. Eat the leftovers for breakfast
I followed the instructions for making the fruit puree from a recipe in this cookbook, which is from the talented folks at Tartine in San Francisco. Wow, this place looks beautiful.