Skip to main content
Dessert

An Excellent Trifle

A layered dessert of soaked sponge biscuits, macaroons, ratifias, custard, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

An Excellent Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the cakes

  1. Mix the wine, brandy, sherry or Madeira, and spirit in a bowl.

  2. Soak the sponge biscuits, macaroons, and ratifias 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 over the cakes.

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

Top and serve

  1. Prepare whipped syllabub and pile it over the trifle to a depth of 2-3 inches.

  2. Sweeten and flavor the thin cream with sugar and wine.

  3. 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

Sponge biscuits
Soak up the wine and spirits, forming the soft base layers of the trifle.
Macaroons
Absorb the soaking liquid and add chewy, almond-flavored texture between the custard layers.
Ratifias
Soak up the wine and brandy mixture, softening and adding almond flavor to the layers.
Rich boiled custard
Adds creamy richness and moisture, setting the layers together between the soaked cakes.
Eggs
Thicken the custard through gentle heat, giving it a rich, smooth body.

The step that matters

Soaking the cakes. Cakes should be soaked thoroughly but not left to disintegrate, so they hold their shape under the custard and absorb liquid evenly.

“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 →

You might also like

Baking Powder BiscuitBaking Powder Biscuit119 recipesBrandy PeachesBrandy Peaches68 recipesSour Milk BiscuitSour Milk Biscuit27 recipesBrandy CreamBrandy Cream21 recipes