Possible Allergy warning – please read all recipes carefully
and be aware of any allergies or sensitivities that may affect your health and well-being

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Please Fave the original Here

This might be "TL;DR" but please follow this to the letter and you'll have a great treat from !

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Please Fave the Original Submission: https://www.furaffinity.net/view/14203837/

And of course, we cant have steak without dessert, so...more from vrghr !

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An elegant and tasty dessert with a dramatic presentation. The presence of rum makes these a bit more "adult". Feel free to leave it out if serving to youngsters. But it does lose something if you do.

Layers of different berry flavors, combined with rum-syrup enhanced lady fingers and sponge cake, and rum-enhanced vanilla custard pudding give this dessert all sorts of delightful complexity. Every bite delivers a different combination of flavors.

Surprisingly, these weren't that difficult to make, though letting the pudding set and the fruits rest in the fridge did require a bit of time (unattended). The hardest part was not devouring these before time!


Berry Trifle with Rum Custard

Ingredients

Fruit:

1 basket (Pint) fresh field strawberries
2 baskets (half pint) red raspberries
1 basket (half pint) Wild blackberries (tart, but stronger flavor)
1 basket (half pint) cultivated blackberries (sweeter, larger, but milder flavor)
1 basket (half pint) blueberries

Custard:

2 C cold milk (2%)
1 box French Vanilla "no-cook" Jello Brand pudding
1 generous tablespoon Dark Rum

Rum Syrup:

1/3 C Sugar
1/4 C Dark Rum
1/2 C water
dash salt

Other:

3 large "fancy" glasses
1 can "spray" whipped cream
3 sponge cake "rounds" for short cakes
16-20 soft, tender Lady Fingers

Note - my glasses were quite wide and large, so the sponge cake "rounds" made prep faster. You may wish to use more lady fingers if they fit your glass better, and leave off the sponge cake. Or vice versa.

Directions:

Prep the fruit
Take 3/4 each of the raspberries and blackberries. Put them in their own small bowls and sprinkle about 1 Tablespoon of sugar over each.

Partially mash the berries with a potato masher or similar implement, and stir them around to mix.

Add in the rest of the un-mashed fruit, reserving a few of the best looking specimens of each for garnish. Stir the whole fruit in to the mashed, and refrigerate for at least an hour (or more) to give up their juices.

Slice the strawberries (reserving 3 good looking ones for garnish) put in a bowl and sprinkle with sugar. Stir to distribute and refrigerate with the other berries.

Chill the blueberries, but don't mash or add sugar.

Prep the custard
In a small bowl, whisk together the contents of the box of Jello pudding and 2 cups cold milk until completely combined and it begins thickening a tiny bit.

Add 1 generous tablespoon of dark rum and whisk into the pudding mix.

Place bowl in refrigerator to set up (about an hour).

Prep the syrup
In a small sauce pan, combine Dark Rum, Sugar, salt, and Water over med-high heat, stirring constantly until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to a rolling boil.

Allow to boil until syrup reduces to about 1/2 volume.

Cool, then pour into a squeeze bottle and chill in the refrigerator.

ASSEMBLE THE TRIFLE
(You can make the layers in any order. Here's how wuff did the ones pictured:)

Spoon a small portion of the custard into the bottom of each glass.

Add a layer of the sliced strawberries.

Add a layer of the sponge cake. Squirt it with a generous amount of the rum syrup.

Add another layer of custard.

Add another layer of strawberries. Set them up with a thin layer of custard.

Add a layer of the blackberries.

Add a layer of lady fingers. Squirt with more rum syrup.

Add a thin layer of custard.

Add a layer of red raspberries.

If you want, you can stop here and refrigerate these until just before serving.

Squirt in a thin layer of whipped cream.

Top the cream with a generous layer of blueberries.

Squirt on a mounded cone of whipped cream.

Garnish with a strawberry, sliced and "fanned", a couple "choice" blackberries, a few "choice" raspberries, and another sprinkle of a few blueberries.

Refrigerate the Trifles for a bit to allow the flavors to meld slightly, or you can serve immediately

Notes:

The rum flavor in the custard is quite noticeable, but not at all overpowering. However, if you aren't a fan of rum, you may wish to substitute another liqueur (perhaps amaretto, cognac, etc) or leave it out entirely.

The rum syrup is much more mildly flavored than the custard, and shouldn't be an issue, but does add a nice complexity to the confection.

There is actually very little alcohol in each serving; most of the rum in the syrup boils off, and there is only a tablespoon in the custard, distributed among three servings.

NOTE: As Vargr recently learned, you can substitute Sucralose (Splenda) one-for-one for the sugar in this recipe. This can significantly reduce the grams of sugar involved, especially if sugar-free Jello Pudding is used. However, you're still going to get a fair amount from the berries, lady fingers, and sponge cake. But for those on a diet or watching their sugar limits, every little bit helps!

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