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Trifle Cake
Line a glass bowl with a layer of sponge cake. Cover with red currant jelly or raspberry jam, then more cake. Sprinkle over this a handful of coconut and ½ cup chopped almonds. Saturate with½ cup brandy. Pour over all a custard made of
The page breaks off mid-sentence, which means the custard is left entirely to the cook. Everything else is straightforward assembly, and the only real technique is in the custard and the chilling.
- The recipe is incompleteThe original text ends at "a custard made of" — the proportions were lost. Any standard stirred custard works: roughly 2 cups milk, 4 egg yolks and 1/4 cup sugar, cooked over low heat to about 175F until it coats a spoon, then cooled before pouring over the cake.
- Do not let the custard boilThis is the hinge. Above roughly 180F the yolks curdle and the custard turns grainy, and it will not recover once poured over the cake. Strain it as a matter of course.
- Pour it cool, not hotHot custard soaks straight through sponge into the jam layer and the whole thing collapses. Cool it to lukewarm or cold first.
- Sponge cakeDay-old or slightly dry cake is better than fresh — it takes up the brandy and custard without disintegrating. Store-bought sponge fingers or a plain genoise both do the job.
- CoconutA period "handful of coconut" was most likely desiccated shredded coconut, though freshly grated is also possible; call it 1/3 to 1/2 cup. Modern sweetened flake will make the layer noticeably sugary against the jam.
- The brandyHalf a cup over an assembly this size is generous by current taste and reads strongly since nothing cooks it off. A quarter cup is plenty, and the alcohol remains raw — worth knowing before serving it to children.
- VesselA straight-sided glass bowl of about 2 quarts shows the layers, which is the whole point of building it in glass rather than a pudding basin.
- Chilling and yieldRefrigerate at least four hours, ideally overnight, so the custard sets and the layers marry. A 2-quart bowl serves eight to ten. Whipped cream on top is the usual finish, though this version does not mention it.
Trifle in English cookery began in the sixteenth century as a flavoured thickened cream, and only acquired its layers of cake, preserves and custard over the following two hundred years — the sponge-and-sherry version most people picture is a Georgian and Victorian development. This version substitutes brandy for the sherry or Madeira of English recipes. The instruction to line a glass bowl matters as much as any ingredient; cheap pressed and moulded glass meant a household could own a dish for showing off stratified desserts, and the trifle's reputation rests largely on being seen before it is eaten.