Turkish delight trifle

Shaking up this traditional English dessert are flavours from Turkey and Australia - say goodbye to your grandma's recipe. #BringBackTheClassics

Turkish delight trifle Credit: Alan Benson

• serves

  8

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  30 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 1 madeira cake, sliced
• 2 punnets strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 2 x 85 g packets Aeroplane Jelly - Original Port Wine flavour
• 1 tbsp rosewater

Rosewater syrup

• ½ cup caster sugar
• 2 tbsp rosewater

Custard (see Note)

• 2 cups (500ml) thickened cream
• 1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
• 8 egg yolks
• 125 g caster sugar
• 1 lemon, zested

Rose-scented cream

• 300 ml thickened cream
• ¼ cup caster sugar
• 1½ tbsp rosewater

To serve

• ½ cup pistachio nuts, toasted and chopped
• handful of dried rose petals (see Note)
• 2 cubes rose-scented Turkish delight, chopped

Chilling time: 4 hours

Instructions

In a large heatproof bowl, make Aeroplane jelly according to packet instructions, adding rosewater at the end. Set aside to cool.

To make the rosewater syrup, place sugar and ½ cup of water in a pan and bring to the boil, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to low, add the rosewater and simmer for 6 minutes or until thickened slightly.

For the custard, place cream, vanilla seeds and pod into a pan over medium heat. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar together until combined. As soon as cream mixture starts to bubble, pour it into egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Return to pan over low heat. Stir with a spoon until smooth and thick (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat, add lemon zest, cool, then cover with plastic wrap and chill until needed, being careful not to set it.

Place a layer of madeira sponge cake slices in a 2-litre trifle bowl, brush with the rose syrup and scatter with strawberries. Pour over the cooled jelly mix and set in fridge. Once jelly is firm, spread with the cooled custard and chill for another hour. Top with rosewater cream, then scatter with nuts, chopped Turkish delight, dried rose petals and serve.

Note

• Dried rose petals are available from David Jones food halls, select delicatessens and speciality grocers.

• If you prefer, you can use 600 ml of store-bought good quality vanilla custard here instead of making it from scratch. 

Photography by Alan Benson. Styling by Sarah O'Brien. Food preparation by Kerrie Ray. Creative concept by Farah Celjo and Belinda So.

Feeling nostalgic? We want you! For the month of November, SBS Food is asking food lovers far and wide to get creative by putting a multicultural twist or your creative spin on an Australian classic... Welcome to #BringBackTheClassics - enter now!

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.