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Dessert

Raspberry Trifle

A layered dessert of sponge cake, fruit, custard, and whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Raspberry Trifle

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Raspberry Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble the layers

  1. Layer sliced sponge cake in the bottom of a glass dish and moisten with heavy cream.

  2. Cover with ripe red raspberries or sliced peaches.

  3. Repeat the layers until the dish is three-quarters full.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, beat together the yolks of 3 or 4 eggs and mix in ½ cup sugar.

  2. Gradually stir in 1 quart of milk that has just come to a boil.

  3. Heat the mixture until it thickens, stirring constantly.

  4. Once cooled, pour the custard over the cake layers.

Finish

  1. Top with whipped egg whites.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Peach + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together781 recipes

    Shared aroma: phellandrene (minty).

  3. Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set with heat, giving it a smooth, rich body.
Sponge cake
Forms the absorbent base layers that soak up cream and custard.
Heavy cream
Moistens the cake and adds richness and a soft, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, which thickens when heated with the yolks.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the yolks and cream.
Raspberries
Add tart fruit flavour and a bright contrast to the rich custard.

The step that matters

Heat the custard until it thickens. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set with heat, but overheating or insufficient stirring can curdle the custard. Stir constantly over moderate heat and watch for it to coat the back of a spoon.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, sugar, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, sugar, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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