Lemon trifle recipe

Our lemon trifle is topped with an indulgent Italian meringue topping. It’s a show stopping dessert that’s sure to impress. 

Imagine a lemon meringue pie in trifle form and you have this dessert! It tastes as good as it looks and is easy to prepare ahead. We have made the cake layer from scratch but you could swap for a shop bought roulade if you like. 

Ingredients

• 120g golden caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• zest of 2 lemons
• 120g plain flour
• 2 x 325g jars lemon curd

For the mousse:

• 400ml whole milk
• 800g whipping cream
• 2tsp vanilla extract
• zest of 2 lemons
• 6 egg yolks
• 30g sugar
• 7 gelatine leaves, submerged in cold water to soften

For the Italian meringue:

• 3 egg whites
• 180g sugar

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C (160C fan, Gas 4). For the sponge, whisk the sugar, eggs and zest in the bowl of a stand mixer over a pan of simmering water, until the batter leaves a trail when the whisk is lifted. Remove from the heat, place on the stand mixer and whisk on high for 3-5 minutes until thick.
2. Sift in half the flour and fold in gently. Add the remaining flour, fold again and pour the mix onto a 23 x 33cm baking tray lined with baking parchment. Smooth the edges with a palette knife and bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden.
3. Sprinkle parchment paper with sugar and turn out the sponge on top. While it’s still warm, roll up the sponge, starting at the shortest end, keeping the paper inside the roll. Leave to cool before carefully unrolling, filling with 1 jar of the curd and re-rolling. Put in the fridge.
4. For the mousse, heat the milk, 300ml of the cream, the vanilla extract and zest until steaming. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together and pour over the milk and cream. Pour back into the pan and cook over a medium heat, stirring until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Sieve to remove the zest.
5. Squeeze out any excess water from the gelatine. Add to the custard, stir to dissolve and cool slightly. Whip the remaining cream and fold through the custard.
6. To assemble, pour a layer of the mousse into the bottom of a trifle bowl and place in the fridge to firm up. Cut the Swiss roll into 1cm slices, place around the side of the bowl and layer the rest in the middle. Pour over remaining mousse and set fully in the fridge. Once set, spread over the second jar of curd.
7. For the meringue, whisk the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer. Meanwhile, heat the sugar and 30ml water in a pan and cook to 121C. Turn the mixer to low and slowly pour in the sugar. Turn up the speed and whip until thick.
8. Spoon onto the trifle and blowtorch, if you like.

Top tips for making lemon trifle with meringue topp

While this is a little more challenging than a classic trifle recipe, we have to say it’s worth the end result because it tastes amazing and looks really impressive. You can make the sponge the day before or in fact, you can assemble the trifle up to step six the day before and then finish the Italian meringue just before serving.

For more tips and ingredient substitution suggestions, continue reading below. 

When you make the Italian meringue in step seven of this recipe, you need to take the sugar syrup to precisely 121C. The best way to be sure is to use a digital thermometer such as this one from Thermapen

Thermapen® Classic - Orange - View at Thermapen

This compact, handheld digital thermometer is available in a variety of colours so you can match your kitchen decor. It has a superfast, three second temperature reading and an easy to red screen. It can read temperatures from -49.9C to 299C.

For another twist on this flavour combination, you need to try our lemon meringue cake. If you'd like some simpler dessert ideas, have a look at our lemon pudding or lemon creams. Lemon drizzle cake is a classic bake that's perfect for any occasion so if you only make one thing, make this cake.