If using a store bought lemon syrup then omit this step, otherwise bring a cup of water, juice of 2 lemons and half a cup of sugar to a rolling boil. Then reduce the heat and let it simmer until it mixture reduces in half and becomes syrupy. Add more sugar if you want to cut the acidity of the syrup

In another nonstick saucepan kept over low heat, empty the can of condensed milk and let it reduce, while stirring it occasionally, to make toffee. Once it is done, and it will take anything a fair amount of time and elbow grease, let it cool down and turn sticky.

Now in the bowl of your electric mixer, add the cream, the vanilla essence and sugar and whip them together to form stiff peaks. (Sadly, this is where i failed with this recipe as my electric whisk died on me and i had to make do with watery cream instead)

Now slice the bananas and add it to a pan along with half a cup of granulaed sugar and allow it to caremelise over low heat. Move the bananas around the pan occassionally to prevent it from getting burnt.

The previous step can be avoided if you have a blow torch, in which case you can instantly caremelise the bananas by cutting them, sprinklinga a bit of sugar on them and then melting the sugar on top using the blow torch. Personally, i feel that letting it caremelise on the pan adds more flavour,

Now that we have all the elements of the trifle ready, we can assemble them. Keep ready 12 individual serving glasses as we are making individual portions.

Now take a slice of tea cake and let it sit in the bowl of lemony syup for a few seconds. Dont let it get completely soggy or it will fall apart. Once it has soaked in a fair bit of liquid, quickly move it to the glass to form the first layer of the trifle.

If you wanna add a bit more kick to the trifle, you cab either add some sherry to the lemon syrup or simply chose to soak your cake in either sherry or white wine

Now layer the sticky tofee on top of the cake

Carefully layer the nuts on top and then add the caremelised bananas on top

Now spoon in genereous helpings of the whipped cream, all the way to the top of the glass. While assembling the layer, make sure that the cake, the toffee, the nuts and the bananas are equally layered. The cream however will occupy a larger area.

Decorate on top with either a couple of slices of fresh banana or by taking any good quality chocolate bar and using vegetable peeler to make chocolate shavings to sprinkle over the cream

Refridgerate until you are ready to serve or serve immediately.

I must add that my cream was all watery and though i was failry disappointed by the finished look of the dessert (well, its the huge amounts of whipped cream that makes a trifle a trifle), the taste was spot on. So fear not if your cream ends up like mine :)