Repost from my old blog Digella Emporium. 

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For any other Italians or wives of Italians you will know that the semi dry cake which is Panettone is in ample supply at any festival, Christmas, Easter, Birthdays, funerals.

So I plan to action this cake with a little twist of my own.

This is the adapted recipe.

Panettone Trifle Cake

This is based on an old family cake recipe, replacing the sponge cake with a panettone (Italian Christmas bread). Thick slices of this citrus-flavoured bread are brushed with orange syrup and layered with cream and raspberries (or strawberries, if desired), giving you an almost instant “trifle” cake.

Syrup

Grated zest 1 orange

Juice 2 oranges

3 tablespoons caster sugar

2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or Cointreau

Cake

500g panettone

500ml cream (or 500ml mascarpone or a mix of cream and mascarpone) 

400ml custard (Pauls Premium Custard in tub is my choice)

Zest 1 orange

2 tablespoons caster sugar

2 punnets raspberries

2 punnets strawberries

1 Mango

To make syrup, combine zest, juice and sugar in a small saucepan over a medium heat and bring to boil, stirring to dissolve sugar. Simmer for 1 minute then leave to cool. Stir in alcohol.

Remove paper from panettone. Slice off 3 rounds about 2.5cm thick from bottom. Save rest of panettone to eat later.

Brush or drizzle each of the rounds with syrup.

Beat cream, orange zest and caster sugar together until it forms soft peaks.

Place one of the rounds on a platter and cover with a layer of custart and whipped cream. Top with some fruit. Repeat with remaining panettone rounds, drizzling with any remaining syrup.

You will now have a three-layered cake.

Cover top and sides with custard cream, topping with remaining fruit.

Serve immediately, or chill for up to 2 hours. Serves 8

Posts script: It was amazing! Even better the next day. If you are going to use frozen berries make sure they are very good ones. My custard and cream variation was THE BEST!

**Image from house and garden – and below is my latest creation