Trifle
A trifle looks like a dessert assembled from whatever was left in the larder — and it was often a way to use up stale cake — but what decides the result is very specific: the layers must stay sharply separated. Temperature is how you get there. Each layer goes onto the last only once that one is completely cold; warm custard poured over fruit blends into a murky pink smear. It is served in a glass bowl precisely so those layers can be seen.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Custard 20 min
- Fruit 15 min
- Cooling the custard 90 min
- Layers 20 min
- Chilling 240 min
- Whipped cream 10 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneCook a thick custard and cool it completely
Bring the milk and cream to the boil with the split vanilla pod and its scraped seeds. Whisk the yolks with the sugar and cornflour, temper with the hot milk, pour back into the pan and cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes past thickening — about 20 minutes in all. Remove the vanilla pod, spread the custard into a shallow dish, press film onto the surface and chill until cold (about 1½ hours in the fridge). Warm custard softens the sponge and bleeds into the fruit.
Ingredients: 500 ml milk · 150 ml whipping cream (30%) · 6 pcs egg yolks · 100 g sugar · 30 g cornflour · 1 pcs vanilla pod
Cook down half the fruit
Quarter the strawberries. Cook half the strawberries and raspberries with the sugar and the juice of half a lemon for 5 minutes, until it releases its juice and thickens slightly. Cool. The other half stays raw — the contrast between cooked and fresh fruit is what saves a trifle from monotony.
Ingredients: 300 g strawberries · 250 g raspberries · 60 g sugar · ½ pcs lemon
Lay the sponge and soak it in sherry
Line the base of a glass bowl with sponge fingers spread with raspberry jam and sprinkle over the sherry, spreading it evenly with a spoon. The sponge should be moist but not swimming — excess alcohol pools at the bottom and cannot be removed later.
Ingredients: 250 g sponge fingers · 100 ml sherry · 150 g raspberry jam
Moist, but no puddle at the bottom.Spread the fruit and press it to the glass
Spread the cooked and fresh fruit, pressing a few pieces against the side of the bowl. Those are what shows from outside and what makes the cross-section legible. Keep the layer level — an uneven one throws off every layer above it.
Ingredients: 300 g strawberries · 250 g raspberries · 60 g sugar · ½ pcs lemon
Pour on the cold custard and level it
Pour on the fully cold custard and spread it right to the edges, sealing the fruit underneath. It must touch the glass all the way round — otherwise fruit juice creeps up the side and blurs the boundary between layers.
Ingredients: 500 ml milk · 150 ml whipping cream (30%) · 6 pcs egg yolks · 100 g sugar · 30 g cornflour · 1 pcs vanilla pod
Cold custard, spread right up to the glass.Chill for four hours
Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. The custard must set before the cream goes on — on soft custard, whipped cream simply sinks.
Ingredients: 500 ml milk · 150 ml whipping cream (30%) · 6 pcs egg yolks · 100 g sugar · 30 g cornflour · 1 pcs vanilla pod
Whip the cream and add it before serving
Whip the cold cream with the icing sugar to soft peaks and spoon it over in waves. Scatter the toasted almonds only at the table — sitting on cream they lose their crunch within an hour.
Ingredients: 400 ml whipping cream (30%) · 30 g icing sugar · 40 g flaked almonds
Four clean layers visible through the glass.
Before you start
Without alcohol
Replace the sherry with orange juice plus a spoonful of lemon juice. You need a liquid that is both sweet and sharp — plain fruit juice leaves the sponge tasting flat.
Make it a day ahead
A trifle without its cream keeps for two days in the fridge and is better on the second — the sponge soaks up custard and juice. Whip and add the cream no more than an hour before serving.
The winter version
Out of season: pears poached in wine with cloves, plums, or frozen berries. Frozen fruit releases more juice, so cook it longer and reduce it — excess liquid turns the sponge to mush.
