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Dessert

Ax Excellent Trifle

A layered dessert of soaked sponge biscuits and macaroons, custard, and whipped cream flavored with wine, lemon rind, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and spirit work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 209 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Ax Excellent Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the cakes

  1. Mix equal parts of wine and brandy, about ½ cup each, or use ⅔ cup of good sherry or Madeira and ⅓ cup of spirit.

  2. Soak 4 sponge biscuits and ½ pound of macaroons in the mixture.

Layer the trifle

  1. Cover the bottom of a trifle dish with part of the soaked cakes.

  2. Pour 1 pint of rich boiled custard made with ¾ pint milk, ¾ pint cream, and 6 eggs over the cakes.

  3. Layer the remaining soaked cakes on top of the custard.

Make and top with syllabub

  1. Prepare whipped syllabub by sweetening and flavoring ½ pint of thin cream with wine.

  2. Flavor the cream with lemon rind and cinnamon, and mix in 4 teaspoons of fine flour.

  3. Cook the mixture over a clear fire until it thickens, then let it cool before adding to the trifle.

  4. Whip the cream to a light froth and gently heap it over the trifle.

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.

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. Brandy + spirittop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).

  2. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Wine + spirittop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together701 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  4. Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Sherry + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the custard and give it body as they set during gentle cooking.
Sponge biscuits
Soak up the wine and brandy, giving the trifle its soft, moist base.
Macaroons
Absorb the soaking liquid and add a chewy, almond-like texture between the custard layers.
Fine flour
Thickens the cooked cream mixture so it holds its shape when cooled.
Cream
Adds richness and fat to the custard and whipped topping.

The step that matters

Cook the cream mixture until it thickens. Flour thickens only when heated with liquid, and gentle heat prevents scorching or lumps. The mixture must cool fully before it goes on the trifle, or it will soften the layers and turn runny.

“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.

More trifle recipes

Apple 48Gooseberry 43Lemon 18Swiss Cream 17Brandy 13Grape 12 See all 115 →

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