Lemon and raspberry cheesecake trifle!

Serves: 8-10 people 
Prep time: About 2.5 hours 

Lemon is one of those flavours that I just love using for summer! It is refreshing, light, and has the most incredible taste in desserts, but is still balanced out with it's sourness. In this recipe, raspberries are fiercely present as a contrasting fruit as far as texture, colour and flavor. 

For me, you can never go wrong with a trifle as, as the same suggests, it has three mayor components that provide a wonderful balance of flavours, colours, and texture within the dessert. It is so easy to make and the sky is limit when it comes to creating the layers. 

Lemon Pound Cake 

Ingredients

- 1 cup of unsalted butter 
- 1 1/4 cup of granulated white sugar 
- 6 large eggs 
- 3 cups of all purpose flour 
- Zest from 4 Meyer lemons 
- 1/4 cup of milk
- 1/4 cup of lemon juice 

Cake Syrup 
- 200 ml of water
- 200 grams of granulated white sugar

Method 

- In a large bowl, whisk together the butter and sugar until smooth, to then incorporate the eggs one at a time. 
- Sift the flour to avoid any lumps and, with a baking spatula, slowly fold it in little by little until you get a smooth and homogenous mixture. 
- To finish up the batter by adding the milk, lemon juice and zest into your mix. The lemon fragrance will be strong and oh so good !
- Preheat your oven to 180 degree Celsius (356°F). 
- Grease two nine inch baking pans and divide your batter equally onto the two. 
- Bake your cakes for 20-25 minutes (this may vary depending on your oven). 

- For the cake syrup, I simple the water and sugar into a saucepan over medium heat for about 5-8 minutes until the sugar is completely dissolved. Let cool until it's time to ensemble the trifle.

Remove the cakes from the pan, and cut into squares (about 3-4 cm) to be put into the trifle. 

Lemon Cheesecake Filling 

Ingredients 

- 16 ounces of softened cream cheese 
- 1 1/2 cups of powdered sugar 
- Zest from 2 lemons 
- 1/4 cup of lemon juice 
- 2 cups of heavy whipping cream (make sure it's refrigerate for at least two hours before)

Method 

- One of the main factors you need for success in this recipe is having freezing your beaters and mixing bowl for about 30 minutes before hand to make sure your whipping cream and cream cheese thicken when beating. 
- First, mix together the cream cheese with the powdered sugar until well combined. 
- Next, add the heavy whipping cream and beat for about 5-7 minutes, until it actually looks like a thick cream. 
- Finally, add the lemon juice and zest and mix gently. 
​- Refrigerate for another 30 minutes before ensembling. 

Ensembling 

- For this version I chose to use a large trifle bowl, but if you do not have one, you can use smaller individual grasses, even champagne and martini glasses. 
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​- For the trifle you will need about 500-800 grams of fresh raspberries to spread a generous amount among the layers. 

It's simple, start off with a layer of your pound cake, spread some of that syrup you made (this will help make the cake moist in order to really blend in with the other layers), followed by the cheesecake mixture and then the raspberries. For this type of dessert, there is not right or wrong way to do it in terms of measurements on the layers, simply add what you think feels right. 

- You can always reference the video I made above. 
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- I like to finish the trifle but garnishing it with some Meyer lemon wedges for some extra colour, texture and lemon aroma!

I hope you enjoy making (and eating) this dessert as much as I do and decide to try it for yourself! Happy Summer my loves!