Last year, I skipped the trifle and made the most incredible 
Deathly Gorgeous: Amarula, Berry and Chocolate Cheesecake but it did mean that I skipped out on my annual trifle. And two years without trifle means serious trouble. SO this year, I made THREE.
I used a Black-Forest-esque recipe that I came up with myself a few years back, because everyone tends to roll their eyes when I start talking about jelly and custard and tinned peaches. Trifle for me, is basically a religion, so I decided to bend ever so slightly to requests for chocolate dessert by simply making my trifle.... well.. chocolate. When I started makig trifle annually, It didn't take long before I tossed out the original sherry (That my non-drinker but surprisingly heavy handed Granny used to get all us kids vrot dronk on so we'd pass out) and swopped it out depending on the trifle theme of the year to Amarula, Milk Tart Liqueur, Nacht Music (Which is now impossible to get hold of in South Africa), Frangelico or Ammaretto.
We don't really drink cream based liqueur at home for fun, so I still had a bunch left over from @ZakLudick's 
Claire's Crazy Cakes, Bakes and Kitchen Hacks: Chapter 14 - Double Decker Milk tart, Caramel and Chocolate Cheesecake. SO milk tart liqueur is was!
I am working right through the holidays, so I used a few hacks, since I didn't have time for finicky business.
Firstly, I bought chocolate flavoured pourable custard.
I bought 2 x chocolate swiss rolls, which I unraveled and used as my sponge layers.
And I premade all my jelly and spooned it on.
I also decided not to fight with the horrible quality of whipping cream we see on the shelves at this time of year which is always poorly stored and monitored due to the Christmas insanity and I bought the stuff in a can.
Equally so, I couldn't be bothered to hear everyone moaning about nuts they don't like, so I just smothered everything in Oreo cookies and fresh mint from the garden.
Another think that was different this year is that because I was so late in going out to do my Christmas shopping - EVERYTHING was sold out, which forced me to buy all the berries fresh - which hurt my pocket, but ultimately made the trifle just that much more decadent and delightful. All I did was let them rest overnight in a mixture of milk tart liqueur and brown sugar, which I heated up and melted a bit before throwing it onto the berries.
I also may or may not have smothered myself in Chardonnay.
here's a step by step picture guide of how I basically threw everything together on the 24th so that it had JUST enough time to soak and settle for Christmas dinner on the 25th.
No I didn't keep you any. It's all gone!!!! 🤣