Christmas just isn’t complete without a belly full of trifle! No matter how many prawns or bowls of fresh fruit salad we consume over lunch, somehow there’s ALWAYS room for trifle… (Call it the miracle of Christmas if you will)! But this year, hold the guilt, because the best thing about this recipe is that it’s totally and completely 100% clean (read: this grants you permission to go back for seconds).

This wonderful MNB Christmas Trifle recipe features one of our fave cakes of all time (yes it involved kidney beans) and we can say from personal experience. It’s actually great fun to make/bake/create (blame it on the colours). Truth be told, this recipe does contains a few steps, but as they say “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, so we recommend blasting the christmas carols and involve a loved one to let the good times roll.

Healthy Christmas Trifle

Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 4 hours
Servings: Serves 8

Ingredients:

RED BERRY JELLY:

• 10 medium strawberries
• 6 raspberries
• ½ cup room temperature water
• 6g gelatine (3 sheets of 1 sachet of powder)
• ½ cup boiling water

 

KIDNEY BEAN CHOC CAKE:

•  1 (400g) can kidney beans, drained
•  5 eggs
• 1 tsp. vanilla powder or extract
• 3 tbsp. cacao powder
• 4 tbsp. honey (or other sweetener)
•  2 ½ tbsp. baking powder

 

COCONUT CREAM:

• 1 can full-fat coconut cream, refrigerated overnight
•  1 tsp. vanilla 5 drops liquid stevia

 

How to make it:
To make the jelly:

• Blend the berries and ½ cup water in a blender until smooth. Pour into a bowl. If using gelatine sheets: 3 minutes in advance, bloom the gelatine in ice water.
• Remove the sheets, squeeze out the excess water and place ½ cup boiling water to dissolve. Stir with a fork. If using powdered gelatine: Pour the gelatine into ½ cup boiling water. Stir with a fork. When dissolved, pour the gelatine slowly into the blended berries, stirring continuously. Place in fridge and let the jelly set for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

 

To make the cake:

•  Preheat oven to 180C (356F) Puree kidney beans in food processor. Add in eggs and combine for a minimum of 5 minutes. Add vanilla, honey, cacao and baking powder. Blend briefly.
•  Pour into lined cake tin and bake in over for 15-20 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean.

 

To make the cream:

•  Remove coconut cream from the fridge. Carefully turn it upside down and open the can. Drain out as much of the liquid as possible from the top of the can, and scoop out the solidified pure coconut cream.
•  Place the coconut cream into the mixer bowl, and whisk it on high for around 4 minutes. Add the stevia and the vanilla powder and mix for another minute.

 

Assemble the trifle:

• In a large clear dish, or individual glasses, layer chunks of cake with jelly, kiwifruit, then last, coconut cream. Keep layering until you reach the top of the dish and top with fresh raspberries, mint and cacao nibs. Can substitute kiwifruit with green grapes.

Recipe an image sourced from Move Nourish Believe.