Trifle

Loved it! Great recipe to cook with my grandmas back in Brazil, maybe? :)

Around the World

   Trifle is a typical English dessert, cooked very often during Christmas time, which contains thick custard, sponge cake, fruits and whipped cream. The ingredients are arranged in layers and moisturised with juice or even alcoholic beverages.

   Apparently, it was an “evolved” version of another English dessert called fool, which is made with puréed fruit, cream and sugar. Trifle was also an alternative way to use leftovers of stale cake and make it edible again by moisturising it.

   This dessert has become very popular in England during the 17^th century, but has also established itself in American cuisine through British emigrants who settled in the coastal South. Over there, trifle is called “tipsy cake”. There are also versions of trifle in several other countries. In Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic, for example, there is a similar layered cake called Punschtorte. In Italy, there is “zuppa inglese”, which means “English soup”, and is cooked with custard, sponge cake and an alcoholic beverage called Alchermes. In Scotland, a similar recipe with Drambuie or whisky is called “Tipsy Laird”.

Dish illustrations in "Mrs. Beeton's Book
of Household Management". The trifle
one is on the lower left hand side.

Representations in British Culture and Literature

   One of the first literary references to trifle is dated from 1597. It is a simple recipe for cream flavoured with sugar, ginger and rosewater in a book called “The Good Huswifes Jewell”, by Thomas Dawson. This book was probably written for the Elizabethan middle-classes and, while reading a transcript on the internet, I realised a few differences from the written English we use today.

   Another old reference to trifle is made in “Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management” – yes, her again. The curious part about Isabella’s recipe is that she adds a lot of ingredients to the basic recipe: macaroons, ratafia (a kind of liqueur), almonds and brandy are used to make it more tasty. Apparently, she considered trifle a posh dish. She also mentions the decoration for the dessert, saying that using coloured comfits may seem old-fashioned.

   Jumping to a more recent time, I thought it was interesting to see how many British websites claim to have the recipe for the perfect trifle. Blogs, newspapers and even food companies advertise their way of doing as being the best. Basically, the recipes don’t change much, but the photographs and the way they are written are quite diverse. There is also, just as with toffee, the mentioning of “homemade” and “family history” points with the recipe to make it sound more convincing and important.

   I also found it interesting that many recipe forums and websites with comments are crowded with questions and descriptions from their visitors. Even though trifle seems to be a traditional and very popular recipe, their cookers are still worried with getting it perfectly. This audience is mainly formed by housewives and starting amateur chefs, who exchange tips about timing, ingredients and procedures, as well as exotic twists to these recipes.

The word

   During my research, I found out that the noun “trifle” is not only used to describe this dessert. It may also be a synonym for “slightly”, as in “She was a trifle sad”; or may mean something of little value or importance, as in “There’s no reason to worry about such trifles”.

   Trifle may also be used as an intransitive verb. In this case, it may mean you’re handling something idly, treating someone as unimportant or talking in a mocking or misleading manner.

   According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, the word started being used in the 14^th century and comes from Anglo-French “trufle”, “triffle” or “trufler”, which meant a fraud, a trick, or to talk nonsense.

Not too bad for a industrialised one!

The eating part

   To write my trifle review, I went against all recipes and homemade recommendations and actually bought a small ready-to-eat raspberry trifle at Sainsbury’s. I wanted to cook it myself, but these past weeks have been so busy... And anyway, I’m still afraid to mess it up and burn the flat :P

   Well, tasting trifle was good! Even though it’s hasn’t become my favourite dessert in my entire life (chocolate cake lover, sorry!), I can definitely say I’ll try to cook it back home or even eat a more elaborated one again here in London sometime.

   Considering it was an industrialized trifle, I wasn’t expecting much. The custard part was actually a little tasteless, but I guess it’s okay if you’re being lazy as I was. The raspberry jam and the sponge cake were delicious, and the macadamias on top gave it a little crunchy feel. It didn’t taste as sweet as I thought it’d be, but I guess it was a good thing – otherwise, you may not be able to eat the whole thing. The dessert was very well moist and I really enjoyed the different textures from the different parts. The only thing I would spare is the whipped cream, but that’s just because I don’t like it anyway.