Put a trifle dish on a large tray to make it easier to carry. Slice one of the Madeira cakes into 5mm slices and use a few to line the bottom of the dish. Make sure they are nice and tight and in a single layer, so squidge down any bits that are standing too high. Brush the sponge with some of the alcohol, if using, then take a few strawberries roughly the same size and turn each half upside down and put it on the outer edge of the cake so it presses up to the glass. Repeat all the way round. Sprinkle crumbled amaretti biscuits on top of the cake mixture to a third of the way up the strawberries.

Put the vanilla, icing sugar and cream in a bowl and whip until almost like cream cheese but a little looser. Spread a third of the cream on top of the strawberries and crumbled biscuits and smooth it down flat with a spoon. The creame should come up to only a couple of millimetres or above the level of the top of the strawberries. The amaretti biscuits do stick to the spoon while spreading the cream on, so I use a small knife to just scrape them off. Stand back from your evolving masterpiece and have a look to see if the cream is level. If it is not, use a piece of kitchen paper to wipe around the edge of the bowl, then sprinkle with a layer of grated chocolate. 

Now repeat each layer until the bowl is full, finishing with a layer of strawberries. Set aside.