Sticky Toffee Cherry Gingerbread Trifle
Making my first Christmas dinner: short rib ragu and a sticky toffee trifle
Ryan Nordheimer•
January 2, 2026
I’ve never cooked a Christmas dinner before for two reasons:
- I’m Jewish.
- We have been on vacation every year for Christmas for the past twenty years of my life excluding two times (covid (awful) and this year (not awful)).
We cut our holiday trip this year to Florida shorter than usual. So my family all ended up back at home in Maryland for Christmas.
It was December 23rd, and I asked my mom “…so what are we actually doing for Christmas this year.” I got no response. I don’t think we actually thought about it until that moment. We could order in Chinese food (what many Jews do on Christmas), but that didn’t really feel like our tradition to experience either. And that’s also, um, not really fun or festive?
Surprisingly, we turned to cooking a holiday dinner. Again, since we have no traditions or memories of a Christmas, it was sort of all bets were on for the menu. Which is sort of odd for a holiday meal: working with no sense of sentimentality around the food. But that opens the door for new traditions and new memories.
I pulled bits and bobs from a few different cuisines that felt “more Christ-massy”. Short rib ragu, chive crab cakes, blanched green beans in vinaigrette, sticky toffee trifle. Seemed appropriate enough.
Laying out all the food next to towering lit candle sticks and brambling bunches of holly, I was proud of the Christmas meal I had made. It felt special and warm and sentimental.
The short rib ragu was outrageous. I realized at the last minute we were out of parmesan cheese. I piled into the car with my cousin and zipped over to her house to lift a couple blocks of cheese. The ragu was so good I actually don’t even think it really needed the cheese in the end (but, of course, still use cheese). I shredded my short ribs into some bigger chunks, which I found as a lovely surprise, but which my mom found unappealing… so the choice is yours how shreddy you would like your meat. We had the same opinions over a chicken pot pie a few nights prior, where I shredded the chicken meat into larger chunks and left in the chicken skin. My parents both almost disowned me that night. So dramatic.
And the trifle was as outrageous too. The cherries were necessary to bring a tinge of color and acidity to the dish. I know it’s one more component that you have to cook, but without them I don’t know if the dessert would ring as balanced. Everyone was confused in my family what the dessert even was. “So is it a cake?” my uncle asked. I don’t know if any of them have ever had a trifle before. And actually now that I’m thinking about it, I believe I’ve only had one and it was at an Easter party. LOL.
So we’ll see if non-denominational Christmas dinner becomes part of my family’s tradition. My bet is: no. I think we’ll be traveling again next year. But I’ve been enjoying the time to reset and take things easy. Clear my head for the year to come. In the meantime, everyone enjoy this last week of the year (i.e. purgatory).
Merry Christmas (and happy late chanukah),
Ryan
Hey! My name is Ryan Nordheimer. Welcome to my cooking and baking site. I’m a 25-year old home cook living in the East Village in New York City. Hopefully you enjoy my food through my own, tried-and-true recipes.
Ingredients (25)
Ingredients (25)
For the gingerbread cake
For the toffee sauce
For the cherries
For the whipped cream & assembly
Instructions
For the gingerbread
Preheat oven to 350 °F. Line a 9 in square cake pan or casserole with parchment paper (exact size doesn’t matter because you’ll be cutting it up).
In a medium saucepan, add the butter (1 stick), sugar (½ cup), molasses (¼ cup), and honey (⅓ cup). Set over medium heat and stir until butter has just melted. Dump into a medium mixing bowl. Set aside.
In a large bowl, add the flour (1 ⅓ cups), baking powder (½ tsp), baking soda (¼ tsp), salt (½ tsp), and spices. Whisk to combine.
Dump in the butter-sugar mixture and whisk to combine.
Then add the eggs (2 large) and whisk those in.
Finally fold in the dried cherries (½ cup) if using.
Add batter to the cake pan. Bake until the a toothpick comes out clean, around 35 to 45 minutes.
Let cool completely. Then cut into ½ in cubes.
For the toffee sauce
In a medium saucepan, add the butter (1 stick), sugar (1 cup), cream (½ cup), and miso (1 Tbsp) or salt. Set over medium-high heat, and stir constantly until butter has melted and mixture begins to boil.
Pour into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refridgerate until chilled.
For the cherries
In a small saucepan, add the cherries (16 oz) and sugar (¼ cup). Set over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the cherries have become completely tender and the liquid looks syrupy, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Pour into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refridgerate until chilled.
For the whipped cream and assembly
In a large mixing bowl, add the heavy cream (2 ½ cups), yogurt (¼ cup), honey (¼ cup), and salt (1 pinch). Use a hand mixer on medium-high speed, and whisk until you get soft peaks.
In a trifle container, add about 1/3 of the gingerbread cake cubes. Drizzle over with amaretto (however much you like).
Then drizzle over a good amount of the toffee sauce and 1/3 of the cherries. Add a layer of whipped cream over top.
Continue this layering process 2 more times ending with whipped cream.
Garnish with the reserved cherries (16 oz) and any remaining toffee sauce.
The trifle can be refridgerated for several days and is actually better served the next day.
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