Chocolate-Hazelnut and Salted Caramel Trifle

This decadent Christmas dessert is inspired by everyone’s favourite festive chocolate – the purple one from Quality Street!

Ingredients

85g blanched hazelnuts
1 x 400g pack chocolate sponge mix
2 medium eggs
750g Taste the Difference custard
100g chocolate-hazelnut spread
75g dark chocolate drops or chunks
3 tbsp Baileys or Kahlua, optional
1 x 260g jar Taste the Difference salted caramel sauce
200ml whipping cream, well chilled
200ml milk, well chilled
1 x 54g sachet butterscotch whippy dessert
a few Quality Street Purple One chocolates to serve, optional

METHOD

1. Heat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4 and spread the nuts out in a baking tin. Roast for 10 minutes, shaking halfway, until golden, then tip into a bowl to cool. Leave the oven on and grease and line the base of a 20cm round cake tin.
2. Roughly chop the cooled nuts, and add two-thirds of them to a mixing bowl with the chocolate sponge mixture, the eggs and 120ml cold water (as per the sponge mix pack instructions). Beat until you have a smooth batter, scrape into the cake tin, and bake for 30-35 minutes until risen and cooked in the centre. Cool completely.
3. Meanwhile, put the custard, chocolate- hazelnut spread and dark chocolate in a pan. Heat gently, stirring, until the chocolate has melted into the custard. Press a sheet of clingfilm directly onto the custard’s surface and leave to cool.
4. Thickly slice half the cooled cake into chunky pieces (the rest can be enjoyed as a teatime treat), and cut one of these into little cubes. Keep these aside for decoration and arrange the chunks in the base of a trifle dish. Pour over the Baileys or Kahlua if using.
5. Slightly warm the caramel sauce then spoon most of it over the cake layer, letting it drip down between the cake chunks. When the custard is cool, spoon this all over the top of the caramel-cake layer and put back in the fridge to chill for at least half an hour.
6. Whisk together the cream, milk and butterscotch dessert powder in a large mixing bowl, until peaks form. Pile it on top of the trifle, cover and chill for at least another hour.
7. To serve, drizzle with the last of the caramel sauce, scatter with the reserved hazelnuts and cake cubes, and decorate with a few purple Quality Street chocolates if you like.