I do adore a trifle, enjoying the quiet ceremony of building the layers in advance quite as much as each luscious spoonful later. A good trifle doesn’t require a great deal of technique, but it does need time. So some long years ago, I came up with a quick version which I call a Plate Trifle, as its construction requires no more than a plate which you line with slices of sponge cake splashed up with booze, topped first with whipped cream, then fruit. It’s open to any number of iterations, and is a wonderful way of using up stale cake. However, I’ve stipulated shop-bought cake in the ingredients as this started life as a last-minute, no-time-to-cook trifle; obviously, feel free to bake your own cake if you prefer. The warming ginger wine and the acerbic but fragrant passionfruit are an exquisite combination, but this is the very antithesis of a precision-led recipe. In other words, let this assembly-job of a pud suit what you have in your drinks cupboard and kitchen! And bear in mind that, unlike with a traditional trifle, a plate trifle is very well suited to a modest number of eaters. And this recipe halves like a dream. Conversely, I must tell you that as simple it may be, it is also fabulously rich, so when you do need to feed a crowd, this always makes the most stress-free of treaty puds.

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