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Dessert

Trifle

A layered dessert of sponge cakes soaked in wine, custard, jam, and topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Trifle

Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Soak sponge cakes in white wine mixed with brandy.

  2. Layer soaked sponge cakes in a trifle dish.

  3. Dip ratafia cakes in the same wine and layer them on top.

  4. Spread a thick layer of jam over the cakes.

Make the custard

  1. Boil cream and milk with cinnamon until fragrant; sweeten to taste.

  2. Add lemon rind or pounded bitter almonds to the cream mixture.

  3. Beat egg yolks with a little cream in a basin.

  4. Quickly pour the boiling cream onto the egg yolks, then return the mixture to the pot, stirring continuously to avoid curdling.

  5. Heat the custard until it thickens, then remove from heat and stir until cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pour the cooled custard over the layered cakes.

  2. Top with whipped cream and garnish with comfits.

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. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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 when gently heated, giving it a rich, smooth body.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the custard a smooth, velvety texture.
Sponge cakes
Soak up the wine and brandy, forming the soft, moist base of the trifle.
Jam
Adds sweetness and fruit flavour between the cake layers.
Ratafia cakes
Absorb the wine mixture and add a crisp-soft, almond-flavoured layer.
Milk
Dilutes the cream slightly and adds milky body to the custard.

The step that matters

Adding the boiling cream to the egg yolks. If hot cream is poured in too fast or unstirred, the yolk proteins scramble and the custard curdles. Pouring slowly while whisking gradually warms the yolks so they thicken smoothly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, brandy, cream, milk, cinnamon, almond, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, brandy, cream, milk, cinnamon, almond, egg. 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.

More trifle recipes

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

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