Like all good trifles, we’re starting with a soft spongy base. So first thing’s first, get the oven preheated to 200ºC (Gas Mark 6) for a conventional oven or 180ºC for a fan oven and grease up a 30 x 22cm baking tin. 

Grab a large mixing bowl and sift in the flour, Baking Powder, Bicarbonate of Soda and Cocoa Powder. Add all the remaining sponge ingredients and beat together well. 

Once you’ve got a nice smooth batter, carefully pour into your prepared tin and pop into the oven for about 30–35 minutes until it’s risen and cooked through. Not sure it’s ready? Poke a skewer into it to check and if it comes out clean – you’re done! Once it’s out of the oven, leave it to cool in the tin for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. You can leave the oven on for the hazelnuts 

Scatter the hazelnuts on a baking tray and bake them for about 10 minutes until they go a pale golden colour and start to smell lovely and toasty. Keep an eye on them though! They can burn quite easily. Once done – leave to cool. 

Now, back to that sponge! Once it’s cool, use a serrated knife or wire cake cutter to carefully cut the cake in half horizontally, so you’re left with 2 thinner cakes. Be careful not to disturb the crust on top of the cake too much - you want this to be as smooth as possible. 

With the top layer, grab a 5cm high egg-shaped cookie cutter and stamp as many shapes as you can out of it. You’ll need about 12–14, depending on the width of your cutter. Set your squishy egg shapes aside and use about 2/3 of the remaining sponge to line the base of a 20cm diameter trifle bowl. You can cut curved shapes to go around the edges for a neater look, and pack the rest in like a chocolatey jigsaw.

Now – let’s get glitzy! Spray the sponge eggs with gold lustre until they’re a brilliantly bold shade of gold and leave to set for a few minutes. If you feel like they need a second coat – go for it! Once dry, stand the eggs up around the edge of the trifle dish, nestling them up together nice and snug. Use the remaining 1/3 of sponge leftover from your egg shapes to add another layer on the inside, to help hold the eggs in place. 

Sponge sorted, we’re onto the custard. Put the cornflour in a bowl, splash in a dash of milk and whisk until smooth. Then, get the remaining milk into a saucepan and heat until it juuuuust starts to simmer.

Add the egg yolks, sugar and Caramel Flavouring to the cornflour mixture and whisk away until it’s all mixed in, before pouring in half of your hot milk. Mix well, then tip it all back into the saucepan and cook over a low heat for 3–4 minutes. As it cooks, keep whisking! All the way until your mixture thickens up. 

Once it’s clearly custard consistency, carefully pour it into the trifle bowl to create a new, even layer. Careful! You don’t want to let it run between the eggs and the side of the bowl. Once you’re happy, pop the trifle dish back in the fridge to set. 

Once the custard has cooled, it’s salted caramel time! Put the sugar in a large non-stick frying pan and cook over a medium heat. We don’t want to stir to mix this time – the occasional swirl of the pan will do the trick! Once the sugar has melted and you’re left with a rich golden caramel, add the butter and stir in until it’s all well combined before carefully adding the cream. Continue to stir over the heat until you have a smooth caramel sauce, then add a pinch of salt and leave to cool. When it’s cool but not quite set, pour it over the custard in the bowl and return to the fridge to set. 

Meanwhile, weigh out 125g of the toasted hazelnuts and roughly chop them. Once the caramel has set, you can sprinkle these over in an even layer and return the bowl to the fridge. 

Ready to make the melt-in-your-mouth mousse? Then away we go! Break up the Chocolate and pop it into a large heatproof bowl. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water, ensuring that the base of the bowl doesn’t touch the water. Then, heat gently until the chocolate is melted. Mmmmm – smells amazing! Once melted, remove the bowl from the pan and leave the chocolate to cool but not set. 

Now’s the time to pour your egg whites into the bowl of an electric stand mixer. Whisk away into soft peaks (we know, how satisfying is this!?), before adding the sugar a little at a time. Keep whisking until you get firm peaks. Take a small amount of the mixture and rub between your thumb and forefinger. Does it feel grainy? If so, keep mixing. If not, you’re all done! 

Remember the melted chocolate we prepared earlier? Add a large spoonful of the egg white mixture to the cooled chocolate and beat in vigorously to slacken the mixture. Then add the remaining egg whites and quickly fold everything together until there are no more streaks in the mixture. And finally, spoon the mixture over the top of the hazelnuts in the trifle bowl and return the bowl to the fridge for the mousse to set. 

Ok guys – we’re so nearly there! Just the toppings to go. For the praline, line a baking tray with non-stick baking parchment. Put the caster sugar in a non-stick frying pan and heat over a gentle heat until it’s melted. Again, there’s no need to stir, but the occasional swirl of the pan would be great to ensure everything’s melting evenly. 

Once all the sugar is melted and you have a clear, golden caramel, add the remaining hazelnuts to the pan and swirl so that they are coated in the caramel. Now, ready to act fast? Quickly tip the caramel onto the lined baking tray in an even layer and leave to cool and set at room temperature. 

Once the praline is set, we can quite literally crack on with turning it into our decoration. Using your hands, break the praline into shards. Pick your prettiest ones and set aside about two-thirds, then pop the rest in a freezer bag. Using a rolling pin, bash away at the praline in the bag until it’s all broken up into praline crumbs. Phew! That was loud, right?

Put the cream for the decoration in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until it is thickened right up. Be very careful not to over whisk though! It should still be runny enough to just flow. Stir in the praline crumbs, then spoon the dreamy cream over the top of your mousse layer, making sure you have a nice peak at the top. Aaaaaand, you guessed it, return the bowl to the fridge to set!

While the cream is firming up a little, finish the decorations. Place the miniature chocolate eggs on a piece of baking parchment and spray or brush with gold lustre until you have a speckled sparkle effect. Leave to set, then flip them over and do the same again!

When you’re ready to serve, grab the trifle from the fridge (for the last time this time, we promise!) and top with the reserved praline shards and miniature chocolate eggs. You can go messy and piled up, or neat and symmetrical – it’s totally up to you.

Et voila - you’re finally done! Your terrific trifle is ready for everyone to dig deep into. But before you go serving it up, remember to take a few pics … because it won’t look this good for long!