Ingredient

Trifle

A trifle is sponge, fruit, custard and cream in layers, usually with alcohol and sometimes with jelly. Its whole appeal is that the layers stay distinct, and the single technical requirement is patience: each layer must be completely cold and set before the next goes on.

Why patience is the whole technique

A trifle has no structure of its own. Nothing binds it, nothing bakes, nothing sets except by chilling. What holds the layers apart is that each one is firm before the next arrives.

Warm custard poured over fruit sinks into it and clouds. Cream spread onto custard that is not fully cold slumps and mixes. Jelly poured over sponge before it has begun to set soaks straight through and drowns everything.

So the rule is simply: build it in stages, chilling between each one. A trifle assembled in twenty minutes is a bowl of sweet mush. One built over an afternoon, with an hour in the fridge between layers, holds clean stripes against the glass and that is most of the pleasure of it.

It also means a trifle is a make-ahead dessert by nature, which is why it belongs to Christmas and to gatherings.

The order

1. Sponge first — trifle sponges, madeira cake, leftover Victoria sponge, or ratafia or amaretti biscuits. Line the base and up the sides a little.
2. Soak it with sherry, Marsala or fruit juice. Enough to flavour it, not enough to pool.
3. Fruit next — raspberries, strawberries, tinned peaches, poached pears, or a compote. Fresh fruit is better than jam and gives acidity, which a trifle badly needs.
4. If you are using jelly, make it, let it cool to the point where it has begun to thicken, then pour it over. Chill until completely set. Pouring warm liquid jelly straight on soaks the sponge.
5. Make a proper custard — egg yolks, sugar, milk and cream, cooked gently until it coats a spoon — and cool it completely with a film of cling directly on the surface so no skin forms.
6. Spread the cold custard over the set layer. Chill again until firm.
7. Whip cream to soft peaks — not stiff, which looks dry and separates — and spread it on top.
8. Decorate at the last minute: toasted flaked almonds, grated chocolate, hundreds and thousands, or fresh fruit. Anything added early goes soft or bleeds.

The arguments

Trifle attracts strong opinions and there are three long-running ones.

Jelly or no jelly

The Victorian original had none. Jelly arrived later and is now standard in most British households. Both are legitimate; a jelly trifle is sweeter and firmer, a jelly-free one richer and more custardy.

Custard from scratch or from a tin

Homemade is noticeably better and takes fifteen minutes. Tinned custard is thicker and sets more reliably, which is a real advantage in a layered dessert.

Sherry or not

Sweet sherry is traditional. Marsala, Madeira, brandy and rum all work. A trifle for children usually uses fruit juice, and losing the alcohol loses some of the balance — extra acidity from the fruit compensates.

Fruit

Raspberries and strawberries are standard. Tinned peaches and pears are traditional and unfashionable and very good.

The sponge

Anything absorbent. Stale cake is ideal — the whole dish began as a way of using it up.

What goes wrong

• Layers merged into mush. Something went on warm, or not enough chilling between stages. This is the failure.
• Soggy, collapsed sponge. Over-soaked, or jelly poured on hot.
• Runny custard. Under-cooked, or made with too little egg. It must be properly thick before it goes in, because it will not set further.
• Weeping cream. Over-whipped, or whipped too far in advance. Soft peaks, and whip it close to serving.
• Sickly. No acidity. Fresh sharp fruit, or lemon zest in the custard, is what keeps a trifle from being one-note sweetness.
• Bleeding decoration. Fruit or chocolate added hours ahead. Decorate just before it goes on the table.

Common questions