New Year's Eve Trifle

Happy New Year! Hope 2016 is kind to you. So far I am not loving this year, I have to say. The weather has been unrelenting bollocks and the dishwasher is broken, so I don't even want to entertain myself with elaborate cooking.

But we saw out the old year in fine style, so I am still optimistic.

Instead of our long-established habit of staying at home for New Year's Eve and cooking something nice, we went out and cooked something nice. We took an impressive piece of beef (3 rib standing rib roast) over to friends and Paul stood out in the wind and rain (under a canopy, fortunately) and barbecued it while I drank champagne and ate Spanish ham indoors.

Building up the lairs, as Mary Berry would say

My contribution was a trifle. It was pretty much a large version of the individual ones I made for us for Christmas, although I did tweak it a little.

Trifle sponges, split and spread with home made calamondin and Cointreau marmalade, squidged in the bottom of the bowl and sprinkled with Cointreau. Fresh orange, and fresh orange and Cointreau jelly. Vanilla custard swirled with lemon curd. Then a generous layer of lemon syllabub. Decorated with delightful tackiness with orange and lemon jelly slices and pink and yellow sugar pearls.

It was fab. Not too sweet, beautifully boozy and a good way to round off the evening. Unfortunately, being out of the habit of late nights we faded at this point and were home before midnight, watching fireworks through the bedroom curtains.