Simple Christmas Trifle Recipe
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This simple Christmas Trifle Recipe is an easy-to-make layered dessert of fresh raspberries, ladyfingers, and a heavenly pastry cream. It’s a festive, traditional-style British Christmas dessert that takes minutes to prep, plus chilling time.
This simple trifle is perfect for holiday parties, Christmas celebrations, and gatherings. It’s elegant, easier to make than you can imagine, and utterly delicious!
If you love make-ahead desserts, you will adore this recipe!
What I Love About This Trifle Recipe
- Serves a crowd beautifully with very little effort and only requires a few minutes of prep
- Makes a festive and beautiful centerpiece for the Christmas table
- It’s utterly delicious!
Christmas Trifle Recipe Ingredients
Specific measurements for the trifle can be found in the recipe card below.
Here’s what you need to make this raspberry trifle recipe:
- Raspberry jam: I prefer seedless raspberry jam
- Fresh raspberries
- Heavy whipping cream
- Cream cheese: I prefer the original full fat cream cheese in this recipe
- White chocolate chips, which will be melted
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Crisp ladyfingers, otherwise known as savoiardi biscuits
- Fresh mint springs for garnish
- White chocolate shavings for garnish (optional)
How to Make a Christmas Trifle
Step-by-step instructions are on the recipe card below, but here’s a quick overview.
Step 1: Warm jam and toss with raspberries
Warm raspberry jam until it becomes liquid-y. Toss with raspberries and set aside.
Step 2: Melt white chocolate
Melt the white chocolate chips over low heat or in the microwave.
Step 3: Whip the cream
Whip heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
Step 4: Make the pastry cream
In a bowl, beat softened cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth. Beat in white chocolate, vanilla, and 1/3 of the whipped cream. Fold in the remaining cream to the cream cheese mixture. I like to add this mixture to a ziplock bag with a snipped corner.
Step 5: Assemble the trifle
See the layer steps below and repeat for three layers.
Step 6: Chill
For the best texture and flavor, chill the trifle in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight. Garnish the top just before serving.
How to Assemble the Christmas Trifle
Here is how I layer this trifle recipe in three layers with three steps each.
Layer 1: Ladyfingers
Cover the bottom of the trifle dish with a layer of ladyfingers, breaking them into pieces as necessary.
Layer 2: Raspberry Jam Mixture
Spoon 1/3 of the raspberry jam mixture over the ladyfingers.
Layer 3: Cream Layer
Spoon or “pipe” 1/3 of the whipped cream. This is why I add the cream layer to a ziplock bag with a snipped corner. It’s easier for me to do it this way, and it’s mess-free.
Repeat these layers three times.
How to Garnish the Trifle
This is where you can be as creative as you desire. By piping dollops of whipped cream around the edge with a #4B piping tip, you can keep the trifle quick and easy.
I then fill the middle with softly whipped cream stiff enough to hold fresh raspberries on top. I sprinkle fresh mint leaves and shavings of white chocolate on top.
What are Traditional British Christmas Desserts?
My mother always favors British-style Christmas food during the holidays, and that love has passed to this child (me!).
Speaking of which, if you share my love of British festivity and culture, along with afternoon tea and Downton Abbey, let me share a recent find with you. I know you’ll adore it, too.
Gift Idea
I don’t often do this, but I bought myself a Christmas gift this year. It came yesterday and I can hardly put it down. You may love it too! I bought my 302-page hardback book at Amazon.
“Christmas at Highclere: Recipes and Traditions from the Real Downton Abbey”
by The Countess of Carnarvon
Back to traditional British Christmas desserts! Here’s a list of the most popular holiday desserts in Britain, according to A Lady in London:
- Christmas Pudding. When it comes to classic British desserts, Christmas pudding is the most traditional of the festive season.
- Mince Pies are often considered the UK’s favorite Christmas dessert.
- Trifle Recipes: A beautiful layered dessert in a tall glass bowl or dish.
- Yule Logs: These British Christmas desserts are meant to represent the special logs that were once burned on hearths across the UK to mark the first 12 days of Christmas.
- Christmas Shortbread: Scottish shortbread is a popular treat enjoyed during the holidays.
Christmas Trifle Tips and Questions
Absolutely! If you don’t have a trifle dish, any deep glass bowl, like a punch bowl or salad bowl, will work equally well.
It’s essential to make this Christmas trifle ahead. The crisp ladyfingers need time in the refrigerator to soften and absorb the juices from the berries. Making it utterly delicious as you can imagine! If you’d like to make a trifle that doesn’t need to be made ahead, my Berry Trifle would be a great choice!
More Dessert Recipes We Love
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Simple Christmas Raspberry Trifle Recipe
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup seedless raspberry jam
- 4 cups fresh raspberries
- 1 ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- 16 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1/2 cup white chocolate chips melted
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 7 oz package crisp ladyfingers (savoiardi biscuits)
- fresh mint sprigs
Instructions
- Microwave the raspberry jam in a large bowl for about 1 minute, or until it's hot and liquid-y. Toss in 3 1/2 cups of the raspberries and set aside. Reserve the remaining raspberries for decorating the top of the trifle.
- Melt the white chocolate chips in a small pot over low heat or in a microwave at 50% power in 30-second increments, stirring frequently, until melted. Set aside.
- Whip the cream with an electric mixer in a large bowl until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
- In another large bowl, beat the softened cream cheese and powdered sugar until smooth and creamy. Then, beat in the melted white chocolate, vanilla extract, and 1/3 of the whipped cream. With a spatula, fold in the remaining whipped cream until combined. I like to add the pastry cream to a large zip-lock bag with the corner snipped off. It makes adding the cream to the trifle dish easy without smearing it on the sides.
- Assemble the trifle: Cover the bottom of the trifle dish with a layer of ladyfingers, breaking them into pieces as necessary. Then add 1/3 of the raspberry-jam mixture, then 1/3 of the cream. Repeat these layers, ending with the cream cheese mixture on top.
- Chill the trifle in the refrigerator for 8 hours or overnight for the best texture and flavor. Just before serving, garnish the top.
- Garnish the trifle: On top of the last layer of cream, garnish with the reserved whole raspberries and fresh mint leaves.
Video
Nutrition
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Belatedly –
Thank you for this recipe.
I made it for our family Christmas celebration. My granddaughter looks forward to a trifle each year and I wanted to try something new. I made this one because it is truly beautiful – but I had concerns over it likely being overly sweet. It was not – it was a perfect blend of flavors and oh so good. It went together easily, it held up beautifully, it looks festive and special, and it is delicious. It will be a permanent part of our Christmas celebrations from now on (and it would be nice for Valentine’s too.)
Hi Erlene, you’ve just made my day! I’m thrilled your family enjoyed it for Christmas, honestly, that is the highest praise in my book. I’d not thought of it for Valentine’s Day but that is a great idea!!
I made trifle but haven’t tried it yet. Could cake of been used instead of ladyfingers? I broke a piece of the ladyfinger off so I could try it. Wasn’t too crazy about taste so I’m hoping raspberry jelly and whipping cream along with white chocolate will flavor it more.
Hi Mary! Cubes of pound cake can also be substituted for the lady fingers. While there is a lot of variance in flavor among ladyfinger brands, they should absorb all the flavors as they soak!
We were looking for a new dish to bring to our family dinner, this will be perfect!