Trifle is NOT trifle unless it has jelly, I don't care if its "common" or not.

[SKIPWAY]

Watching Marry Berry, she's made trifle with juice, sherry, custard and cream, no jelly. The cake soaked in jelly is literally the best bit!!!
Normally I like to be a bit fancy in the kitchen for special occasions but this is a hill I'm prepared to die on.
What other things are a must have for you but are considered a bit "common"

@berrycakeandcustard The Eating Experience was about as bad as you'd expect. Imagine putting a spoonful of crunchy peanut butter in your mouth with no liquid to wash it down- I think that's the closest approximation that I can think of.

On a separate note- all this jelly talk has reminded me of a pudding my Mother used to make. Jelly, chopped up altogether with evaporated milk. I think it was her version of junket (which was, quite rightly, refused by all the one time she tried the proper stuff)

@Shodan

It was an abomination. XFIL had beaten that poor mixture until it died.

😂 😂 😂

There must be jelly. And alcohol.

Agar agar is the way to go, juice concentrate not fully diluted tastes better that regular or fresh juice, with the flakes dissolved into it. It sets really quickly too.

@Flowersintheattic57 - I've never used agar agar. Can you get it in supermarkets?

@queenofthebongo - tried Holland and Barrett a few weeks ago and they didn't have any. Just popped in this morning and they still don't. Shame as it's really nice jelly - I used a strawberry one last year.

@Shodan
😂😂😂
Oh no!! Poor you, I was hoping for your sake that it at least tasted ok!

I feel sponge is the most pointless part of the trifle - but custard and cream are essential parts and need to be deep layers.

YANBU. It MUST contain jelly.

Why is jelly "common"? What do all these frightfully middle clarss people think the rich and wealthy put in those big copper moulds in the big houses they drag their kids and grandkids round of a Saturday? Soup?

That said, trifle doesn't have to contain jelly, it can contain fresh fruit. Jelly was used in the first trifles to make them extra special, so it is actually posher than non jelly trifle.

My mum used to make Trifle with Jelly and Blancmange and I thought that was how you made trifle, not with custard it just doesn't taste nice.

I wasn't going to make one this year as it's just me and DP now and only me likes it. But it's Xmas and trifle was the highlight off the year But can't find any blancmange and had to bulk buy from Amazon! Good job I love the stuff and will be eating trifle all week.

Agree that's why I don't like custard in mine, Blancmange is so much nicer and solid.

I much prefer trifle with jelly. I care not a jot if it is common.

I also dislike sherry trifle. I like proper kiddie trifle.

Well it is sometimes tricky if you put quite a bit of booze in to get the jelly to set well. It's been years since I've made trifle though.

@StrawberryPot You can make jelly with arrowroot, it should be in the supermarket baking aisle.
www.vegetariantimes.com/recipes/arrowroot-jelly-trifle-recipe/

My Nana, who was nowhere near w/c, always made her trifle with jelly. Maybe she was slumming, I suppose.

I would say that After Eights are something the w/c half of my family did, and that seems to fit my general observation. I like them, though I recognize they are probably not the best chocolate.

I live on the East oast of Canada, and one of the things that always feels like it's from my w/c family for me, though today it is not, is a big lobster feed. My great-grandfather used to bring home several garbage bags full, and the whole family would eat them all boiled with melted butter. They were a garbage fish and cheap at the whar,. Now we eat them the same way, but we sure can't afford trash bags full!

Put the jelly on the bottom and set it first. Sounds crazy but is the same once you scoop it up.

I don't like it🙈

I thought the same when I was watching it. Those sponges looked dry to me.

Laughing at the idea that sherry and jelly are incompatible: even the most heavy handed of the matriarchs across the family had no issue here. Both essential, as is sponge. Cheap Swiss roll or basic home made sponge not those awful fingers please. Other rules: custard MUST be set not sloppy. No hundreds and thousands.

One grandmother, locally famous for her off-piste trifles, often used angel delight in place of custard for the non-standard ones.

I'm on the fence about whether to use jelly on my Black Forest trifle this year; usually leave it out. There will be a standard strawberry sherry trifle too, obvs.

Isn't jelly-free trifle just custard and cream?

Trifle has jelly. And that's that.

<gavel>

Sponge cake?

Fruit?

Fruit juice?

Sherry?

A trifle made just from jelly, custard and cream sounds likes something you’d give a 5YO, or someone who’d had their tonsils out.

Well it is sometimes tricky if you put quite a bit of booze in to get the jelly to set well. It's been years since I've made trifle though

I once put fruit cocktail in my trifle instead of my usual mandarin oranges not knowing that the pineapple would stop the jelly from setting. That was a sad day!!

My trifle recipe, which I've been making since I was a child (and I'm veeery old now) is -

Arrange slices of shop bought jam swiss roll in bottom of bowl
Soak in sherry
Add layer of tinned fruit (mandarins, pears)
Add jelly and leave to set
Add layer of thick custard (made from powder) and leave to set
Cover with whipped cream
Sprinkle with lots of crumbled flake chocolate

The best bit is the sweet sherry syrup that collects in the bottom of the bowl 😋

That is a proper trifle