Italian Summer trifle

Trifle is quintessentially English. It's been around for about 400 years, but has evolved over time. Originally more of a fool it became what we now understand to be trifle in the Victorian era. They added the booze soaked cake and the fruit separately to the cream. Whether a trifle has jelly or not seems to be a matter of personal preference. I like mine without. In fact my perfect trifle is just how mum makes it; sherry soaked sponge a layer of fruit, followed by custard and topped with whipped cream. I was always the special dessert in our house, especially if she over did it on the sherry!!!

In the sunny weather we have had for the past week (no doubt it will stop next week while the kids are off school) I made some Limoncello, so here is my updated version of trifle. It encompasses those lovely summer flavours of lemon and fresh fruit, I've not used custard as I find it rather heavy and wanted to keep this light.

Ingredients

1 pack sponge fingers

250g mascapone

300ml double cream

summer fruit (I used raspberries and blueberries)

300ml Limoncello

5 tbsp icing sugar

Method

Soak the sponge fingers in the Limoncello.

Whisk the mascapone with the cream and icing sugar until thick

Layer half the sponge fingers in your bowl.

Add half the fruit.

Spread over half the cream mixture.

Repeat these three layers.

Voila.

Wordless Wednesday

My silly face

Going #1 or #2 in 0 Gravity

Strap feet in. Position thigh restraints. Turn on vacuum and check for suction. You are now ready to “go” in space.

All of us have looked up at the stars in awe and wondered about life in space. We wonder what the earth looks like and how zero gravity feels but there might be one mystery that you’ve overlooked. What do the astronauts do when they have to… well “go”?

The final frontier couldn’t possibly be explored by humans if this problem was not solved. The solution wasn’t cheap. The International Space Station’s toilet cost around 18 million dollars! It’s not easy to use either. Astronauts have to go back to potty training. The “Positioning Trainer” prepares the astronauts for perhaps their most essential task.

Alignment is everything. The astronauts only have a 4 inch hole to work with compared to the average household toilets 12 to 18 inches. The “Positioning Trainer” provides the astronauts with a camera to make sure there aim is spot on. The astronauts need a lot of practice because there is no camera for them in the space. They must be careful going number 1 too fast because they definitely don’t want to flood the fan separator. No one wants to break the toilet in space. The call home to base might be a little awkward. “Houston we have a problem…”