... to think that trifle isn't trifle if there's no jelly in it?

[evalyn]

OP wants trifle made without jelly. I think trifle has to have jelly or it's not trifle. Which of us is BU?

puzzled ....I likes rasps best, so my trifle is

savoiiardi biscuits or cake soaked in sherry, jam on top, amaretti biscuits next and the real rasps, more sherry and maybe a bit more jam if there were not as many raspberries as i thought
home made custard
then softly whipped cream

maybe a rasp or two on the top, or flaked almonds, or chocolate shavings.

sometimes I use amaretto as well as instead of sherry.

Trifle is swiss roll, jelly, tinned fruit, blancmange and whipped cream.

I always think of trifle with jelly as being a children's pudding, but it's actually a true guilty pleasure.

I make it with raspberries, raspberry jelly, cake, bird's custard and proper cream. None of your fruit cocktail muck.

I'm not terribly fond of alcohol laden puddings.

I like my trifle with jelly, but without custard. My lovely MIL makes trifle at Christmas with Angel Delight instead of custard, if she didn't I would never, ever get trifle.

According to Constance Spry (my mother's most used cook book, written in 1956) old fashioned trifle was made from sponge cake soaked with sweet wine or sherry mixed with brandy garnished with almonds and surrounded with custard covered with a whip of egg white, sugar and cream beaten with sherry. No mention of either jelly or fruit, so this means that everyone on this thread (including me) is doing it wrong!

As a vegetarian, I can never say yes to an unknown trifle, as I don't know if it has jelly lurking in its depths. I don't have the necessary social background to be a trifle purist, but I have to say I think vegetarian jellies give a better result. They don't have the same bounce factor as a gelatine-based jelly, which to my mind means they work much better with the other ingredients.
Having said that, I'm now regretting giving MIL a selection of veggie jellies, as I will now have no excuse to avoid her trifle. She makes custard without sugar. WITHOUT SUGAR. For no good reason. Oh, and cream comes as an optional, pour-over, extra. Now that, ladies and gentlemen, is the real crime against trifle.

I make custard without sugar. It's far too sweet otherwise when ladelled onto a sugar laden pudding. And I say that as a person with a sweet tooth.

I really, really want trifle now.

I think traditionally without, but things change, don't they?

If you like jelly in it, why not?

As a kid for our parties, mum would make a jelly, a blancmange & a trifle (obv without jelly), & most of us would have a bit of everything.

So on occasion, sometimes when having just trifle, it would have jelly in.

depends on what people fancied & what was in the cupboards!

I'm way to invested in this thread. I've been researching...

GUARDIAN ARTICLE ON TRIFLE. Written by a non jelly lover.

Rather than being the johnny-come-lately that I'd assumed, jelly has been added to trifles by misguided folks since the 18th century, but I'm not alone in my prejudice.

So jelly is traditional as is jelly free.

Until reading this thread, I didn't realise you could get trifle WITHOUT jelly.

I think I shall make it for the first time this year, just like I had as a kid, with jelly

Proper trifle does not have jelly in it.

There are many different ways of making trifle. I wouldn't be caught dead eating any of them but the one I make (gobbled up by all children and greedy/childish adults) is: Lady fingers, raspberries, raspberry jelly, custard, whipped cream and silver balls or rainbow sprinkles on top. Gross .

Trifle should actually have jelly in it! lots of people think it shouldn't, but cookery books from the 1700's talk about trifle containing jelly (from calf bones!) and poems in the 1800's talk about trifle with jelly too!

I've eaten 4 portions of trifle today...

No jelly (urghhh)

Boudoir biscuits, tinned raspberries (or strawberries) poured over the top with their juices, sherry, raspberry blancmange (or strawberry) and shit loads of freshly whipped cream.