The right way to layer a trifle?!

[Atrifleconfused]

I’m trying to pretend I’m not stupidly hungover and model mother and wife and making a trifle for after Sunday dinner...

I have the sponge in the oven, sherry in the cupboard and jelly setting in the fridge but I can’t seem to decide, between all the varying recipes online the right way to layer a trife..

Should I add sherry if there is jelly in it and if so I add this to the sponge or the cream

I have frozen berries should they be added to the jelly or a layer in its own right or leave them out altogether.

Should I add raspberry jam and if so where?!

And Cadbury’s flake all over the top (like my mum used to make) or toasted flakes alongside...

Mumsnet help...my head hurts!!

Loving the fact that there's a few Friends fans on this thread! 😂

Go easy on the glasses of sherry Atrifle or things will get even more confused!

If the cake looks lovely, I'd serve that with the raspberries and cream. Tomorrow you can have jelly and custard.

The cake needs to be cold before you put the jelly on, sorry.

Arrange cake (or brownies or swis roll or those finger biscuits) in a bowl.
Pour over alcohol to taste (sherry, orange liqueur, kitsch etc)
Add jam if you want (not necessary imho)
Put on fruit (red berries of any kind, tinned orange segments)
Jelly. (I like it and it helps hold it all together) made with less water than normal and poured over do it soaks in.
Wait till set- quicker in the freezer!
Custard- tinned, birds, real - whatever floats your boat!
Thick layer of whipped cream
Decorate with any or all: flakey chocolate, posh nuts, sprinkles, glacé cherries... as tasteful or not as you like.

There you go

Ok I do have a bit time in side as lamb not even in yet so far I have...

Jelly mixture now taken out of fridge and sitting looking very sorry for itself on the side

A very well risen Victoria sponge, possibly the best I have even made considering the hangover and the fact it’s about to get cut up onto fingers.

A bowl of partially defrosted berries

A now 3/4 bottle of quite nice sherry

And the determination to present a decent trifle to my now, excited family!!

Tell them you're going for pretentious restaurant style: serve them a 'deconstructed' trifle on a shovel and let them put it together themselves.

Personally I’d open the bin and layer the abomination that is trifle straight in.

Great. Bin the jelly. Sponge cut into fingers, liberal amount of sherry, layer of the partially defrosted fruit if you must. Cold custard layer, top with whipped cream. Decorate with flake.

You don’t need to make sponge cake specifically for trifle just as good without

BringOnTheScience has it right. And it should be tinned fruit cocktail.

No need to cut sponge up - just put it in the trifle bowl as it is or cut to size to fit if it's a bit big.

In all honesty I would wait for the berries to defrost, mix with cream and make Victoria sponge!

I'm loving the idea of a deconstructed trifle on a shovel!

My tip would be to start your trifle yesterday.

Cut the cake up now so it cools faster.

Put in bottom of dish.

Pour on jelly mixture. Let set.

Pour on custard. Give it a chill.

Spoon over thick whipped cream.

I’ve been known to fold my raspberries into the cream because I love raspberries and cream. I add a thin layer of neat whipped cream on top so it looks white.

Grate chocolate on top.

Eat all alone.

I attempted to put together a trifle and it didn’t work at all! I poured the jelly over the sponge to set, but I didn’t even think about the jelly just soaking entirely into the sponge!

So ended up with soggy sponge and no jelly layer at all! Where did I go wrong?

I'd sack off the idea of trifle and just have sponge and jelly. How on earth were you hoping to assemble it with an already set jelly .

I do it with set jelly all the time.
I guess I am a superior cook to you smug bastards.

Ok so here is where I am...

Sponge sliced and cooled and layered in bottom of trifle bowl.

Sprinkled a little sherry over the top of said sponge

Hand picked a few of the nicer, now thawed, berries and scattered over the top with a layering of raspberry jam.

2nd batch of jelly made up, marginally less diluted and pores over the top...

Whole shit show back in the fridge...

How am I doing?

I’d just bin the jelly (but that’s because I hate the stuff anyway and it ruins a perfectly lovely trifle)...

No jelly, yuk, but you must have lots of booze.

sounds good to me.

My mum has always made trifle with blancmange (sp?) and I love it, get her to make it every Christmas.

Have tried shop brought trifles and hated it with custard and always wondered why they put custard in it! Guess my Mum has been making it wrong all these years. But it's so much nicer with blancmange, especially vanilla flavour

How am I doing?

You're doing fine. Next stop custard. If you're making it yourself - from scratch or Bird's powder - start now so that it's cooled in time to go on top of the jelly. Hot custard will melt the jelly again. If you're using bought - fresh, tinned, carton, whatever - no need as that's already cold.

I used to throw raspberries into the jelly and let it set. Then pour on the custard and Use clingfilm over the surface of the custard so it doesn't form a thick surface. Put trifle back in fridge for the custard to cool and set. Remove clingfilm then pour on whipped cream then sprinkle with crushed up flakes.

You can bin off the jelly altogether, it's no use to you now it's set. Sponge, sherry soaked if if using, liberal amount of jam, custard, leave to set. Whipped cream, grated flake on top.

I have a ready made, slightly posh, carton of French vanilla custard and then some cream to whip up for red top...

How long do you think the jelly mixture will take to set and how set does it have to be before I add the custard?