Trifle

Trifle is a British dessert typically consisting of layers of sponge cakes that are soaked in brandy or rum, laced with a topping of jelly, custard and fruits and finished with chocolate wafers and whipped cream. Trifle is an aesthetic dessert that’s arranged in various combinations of layers. It is originally part of the British cuisine but later adopted into various international cuisines.

Triffles or trifles, originally meant to be flavored dense cream, in the contemporary context is a sweet layered dessert. Whipped cream, custard, sponge cake, fruit juice and gelatin are arranged in layers to make the very alluring triffles. The alcohol variants made using pork, sherry or Madeira wine are a heavenly last course.

History of Trifle Recipe

Trifle originated from a dessert named “foole” and has its first mention in a book titled "The good housewife's Jewel” way back in 1596 where it was described as rich cream cake that’s flavored with ginger, rosewater and sugar. It wasn’t until 1656 that it started resembling its current form.

Ingredients Used and Method of Preparation of Trifles

There are over 50 variations of trifles and the ingredients vary but a standard trifle recipe features frozen cream, sponge cake, fresh strawberries, bananas, vanilla pudding mix and fresh mint.Trifle is essentially prepared by layering fruits, cake and cream to form a delicious mix. A smooth cake mix is made by mixing pudding and milk and later cut into small cubes. These cubes are placed on a large bowl and layers of fruits and chocolates are laid on top of these. Once that’s done the remaining cake cubes are laid on top and the whole layering process is repeated a few times to form the trifle.

Types of Trifle Recipes

The very nature of Trifles makes it open to experimentation and different types of trifles have continuously evolved with some of them more popular than the others. A few popular types of trifles are described below -

• Chocolate Trifle-Chocolate trifle is made by incorporating chocolate pudding mix as the base with several layers of almond and chocolate bars on top.
• Strawberry Trifle-A vanilla pudding mix forms the base along with soft angel food cake. Additional layers are formed by adding bananas and strawberries with lots of whipped cream as topping.
• Raspberry Trifle is made by using sliced pound cake. Sliced pound cake forms the base of Raspberry trifle. The cake is then laced with raspberry juice and cream.  An additional layer of cocoa powder is sprinkled on top . This is repeated 2 more times to form the raspberry trifle.
• Banana Trifle-Crushed bananas are mixed with pudding to form the base along with pound cake cubes.  Banana slices and  whipped cream form the next 2 layers. Then an additional layer of pudding is followed by lots of whipped cream and crushed vanilla wafers to form the banana trifle.
• Spring Fruit Trifle-Vanilla pudding mixed with wire whisk and chocolate forms the base of the spring fruit trifle. It is then layered with lots of fruits like strawberries, blueberries and kiwi and laced with orange juice and vodka.
• Black Forest Trifle-Chocolate cake soaked in rum and laced with lots of cream and cherry pie filling
• Lemon Blueberry Trifle-Blueberry rolls form the base with whipped cream (laced with lemon curd and almonds) and berry juice forming the 2nd and 3rd layers.  The Berry juices are extracted by drenching the blueberries and strawberries with sugar, lemon juice and corn starch and then simmering them over medium heat until the berries soften and release juices.

Serving Suggestions for Trifle

Trifle is generally served around Christmas time. It is presented in a large glass bowl and Is served by scooping portions of trifle onto individual containers much like ice creams. Trifles are almost always stored and served cold.