Trifle
There is a proper way to make a trifle – and this absolutely isn’t it. For the real way, I would suggest Delia, but be warned, you will be making custard from scratch. The result will be scrumptious, but it will be a lot of work.
This, on the other hand, is trifle the Helen way. It is quick and easy and absolutely acceptable in all social settings. I have yet to find anyone who doesn’t like it and the bowl always comes home empty from put-lucks I’ve taken it to. Sometimes it’s even the first bowl empty (which as you know induces a feeling of great smugness, especially when it’s as easy as it this!).
So give it a go – it’s totally flexible and substitutions can be made with gay abandon…..
Ingredients
- A few sponge fingers, Löffelbiscuit or even left-over cake.
- A packet of frozen berries – any kind, but frozen work better than fresh as they make more juice and you need the juice to soak into the sponge fingers.
- Custard in any form – home-made if you’re virtuous, but out of a can or a packet is just fine. Any kind. It can set firm or be a little runny, whichever you prefer or have to hand.
- Whipped cream – the quantity is up to you.
- Decoration – chocolate sprinkles are my favourite, but hundreds and thousands or fruit or whatever takes your fancy work too. You can even leave it unadorned if you want to.
Method
- Break up the biscuits or cake into chunky pieces and place in the bottom of the bowl.
- Empty the frozen fruit on top and allow to thaw. I press the fruit down a little bit with a spoon once thawed to release even more juice and also to make a flat surface.
- Pour over the custard, trying to ensure that it doesn’t get all mixed up with the fruit. That’s where I find a flattened fruit surface comes into it’s own. Leave the custard to cool or set in the fridge for an hour or two if necessary.
- Put the whipped cream on the top and decorate as you see fit!
As you can see, the fairies had eaten the chocolate sprinkles again, so I had to rely on decoration from the garden.
Yum!!
Helen
July 3rd, 2011 at 9:10 pm
Tasty! I’ve always loved trifle but have never made it, maybe I should give it a try.
July 4th, 2011 at 9:43 pm
Now I have never liked trifle – it strikes me here that you don’t use jelly and THIS sounds much much better, positively delish…
There was a trifle event last week at our party – my gran and mom decided to make a trifle and my mom produced a lemon jelly she’d been hoarding. On it’s turning orange, my gran enquired if it really was lemon. My mom checked the packaging and the date stamp was about 10 years old!! They therefore abandoned it and sent my (non-German-speaking) cousin off to buy gelatine in Migros. She brought the right thing back but nobody had a clue how to use the sheets properly, so they spent a very anxious 24 hrs about whether it would set… most of it got eaten at the party, but not with a lot of enthusiasm!! Perhaps I can persuade them to forget jelly next time?!
July 8th, 2011 at 2:11 am
This looks wonderful. When I was last at the supermarket, I found a can of Bird’s Custard, which I bought right away because my husband lived in England when he was growing up and I remember him talking about it as one of his favorites. And now you’ve kindly provided the trifle recipe, so I’m all set. Thank you!
July 8th, 2011 at 5:50 am
Trifle has always been one of my favourite puds. I throw anything and everything in and it always works. SAdly we’re out of sugar sprinkles at the mo, which is one of the key trifle ingrdients in the Dagg household.