Weekend Baking Project: Bananas Foster Trifle

[Photograph: Maria del Mar Sacasa]

There are so many great recipes on this site that it can be hard to even point people in the right direction when they ask for a recommendation. But when I was recently asked for a suggestion for a birthday dessert that wasn't a regular old layer cake, I knew exactly what to point to: the bananas foster trifle.

What is a bananas foster trifle? Picture a rum-spiked brown sugar walnut cake layered with vanilla custard, meringue, and caramelized, boozy bananas foster.

It's big, it's beautiful, and it's just enough of a project to put together that the birthday guy or gal will feel extremely special when it gets unveiled. But most importantly, it's crazy delicious.