Blackberry Trifle

Thanks to my latest kitchen disaster, I had lots of yellow butter cake in bits and pieces at my disposal. So I decided to take a one-day break from baking in order to recycle all my leftover cake and to serve it in a new guise. A trifle fit the bill just right because I could also use my leftover egg yolks to make the pastry cream. (Unbroken yolks will not dry out if you store them submerged in water.) Wikipedia defines the trifle as a British dessert dish made from a mixture of thick custard, fruit, sponge cake, jelly/jello and whipped cream. This is a loose definition leaving ample room for you to put your creativity into action; you can use ladyfingers, whole or crushed cookies, different fruit combinations, fruit puree, jam, nuts, mascarpone, lemon curd... The possibilities are endless. Just make sure that you serve it in a beautiful glass bowl or individual glass stemware, because the look of the colorful layers is as appealing as the taste.

(By the way, Rana ran off with my camera's card, and until we find or replace it, I will have to use our old camera for pictures. Please bear with me!)

Pastry Cream with 6 egg yolks
1 1/2 c heavy cream
1 16-oz jar of blackberries in light syrup
About 3 c of yellow butter cake cubes and crumbs
Grated white chocolate and nuts to decorate

Sieve the blackberries; reserve the syrup and place the fruit on a paper towel to dry. Line an attractive glass bowl with half of the cake cubes. Sprinkle generously with some reserved blackberry syrup. Pour half of the pastry cream on top of the cubes, and top with half of the blackberries. Whip the cream with a little sugar. Spread half of it on top of the blackberries. Repeat the layers finishing with whipped cream on top. Decorate as desired. Refrigerate for a couple of hours for flavors to mature. Enjoy!