Strawberry Lemon Curd Trifle

Wilsons had a good deal on strawberries and Meyer lemons this weekend. I decided that they would make a good combination in a Trifle. Isn’t that a pretty dish for Easter?

Here’s what you  need:
1 quart strawberries (approximately)
4 Meyer lemons (I ended up with 1/3-1/2 cup of juice and about 2-3 Tbsp of fine zest)
1 pound cake (or sponge cake, lady fingers, angel cake, basically something to soak up the juices)
4oz butter
1.5 cups sugar approximately (superfine if possible)
3 large eggs
16 oz whipping cream

Strawberry Sauce

Take about half of the strawberries and about 1/4 cup of sugar and puree the strawberries in a food processor. Mix in about a tablespoon of lemon juice.

Lemon Curd

I based it on a Lemon Curd recipe from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, but I left out the ginger in his as I didn’t think it would go with the strawberries. Obviously this could also be made with regular lemons, you just need to end up with 1/3-1/2 cup of juice and 2-3 tablespoons of zest.

Zest the lemons, and then squeeze them for juice. In the top of a double boiler combine lemon zest, lemon juice, butter and 1 cup of sugar. If you’d like your lemon curd more tart, you could definitely use less sugar. With the water just at a simmer heat the ingredients until all the butter is melted and the sugar dissolved. Beat the eggs and add them to the lemon mixture. Stir constantly over low heat until the mixture thickens, about ten minutes. Set the lemon curd aside to cool.

Assemble the Trifle

Reserve a few of the best looking strawberries for decoration, and cut the rest up into chunks or slices. Find a trifle dish. Traditionally a trifle dish is glass with vertical or very close to vertical sides so that you can see the layers. Whip the cream, sweetening it with a tablespoon or two of sugar if you’d like.

Line the bottom of your trifle dish with slices of pound cake. If you’re going to repeat the layers, use about half the cake, otherwise go ahead and use it all. Top the pound cake with strawberry sauce. Sprinkle the strawberries over the sauce. Then add a layer of lemon curd, followed by a layer of whipped cream. Repeat the layers: cake, strawberry sauce, strawberries, lemon curd and whipped cream. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight to let all the flavors soak together.

Just before serving slice up the reserved strawberries and decorate the top.

It would also be traditional to pour a couple of spoonfuls of brandy or liqueur over the cake before adding the strawberry sauce. For this one I considered using a little Limoncello, but that seemed to be a bit over the top.