Recipe - Chocolate Banana Trifle

1 13"x9" Chocolate Cake
4 RIPE Bananas, Sliced
1 cup Whipping Cream
One fourth cup Almonds, Blanched, Toasted
& Slivered
One fourth cup Maraschino Cherries, Halved

CHOCOLATE PUDDING
2 cup Whole Milk
One half cup Granulated Sugar
5 ounce SemiSweet Chocolate, Grated
2 tablespoon Cornstarch
2 tablespoon Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
4 tablespoon Water
2 Eggs
4 Egg Yolks
2 tablespoon Vanilla

Prepare the chocolate pudding first. Place the milk, sugar and chocolate in
a medium saucepan. Cook, stirring, over medium heat until the chocolate is
melted and the mixture is on the verge of boiling. Sift the cornstarch and
cocoa powder together. Add water and mix thoroughly. Stir the cornstarch
mixture into the chocolate mixture. Whisk in the whole eggs and the extra
egg yolks. Cook until thickened (about 5 minutes). Add the vanilla extract.
Pour into a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and chill. Cut the chocolate cake
into 3" squares. Layer half the pieces of chocolate cake in a large trifle
or other large glass bowl, cutting the pieces to fit. Arrange half of the
banana slices around the sides of the bowl and on top of the cake. Spread
half the chocolate pudding over the cake and around the sides. Repeat the
process with another layer of cake, more banana slices and the rest of the
chocolate pudding. Whip the whipping cream and slather over the top of the
topmost layer of chocolate pudding. Sprinkle with slivered almonds and
garnish with cherry halves. Chill.

Joel Ehrlich

From Gemini's MASSIVE MealMaster collection at www.synapse.com/~gemini