Vintage trifle-like pudding?

[Aparecium]

What might this pudding be? Some kind of trifle? How could I achieve the checkerboard effect?

Oh this type of retro food really appeals to me for some reason. Looks brilliant. Hopefully someone will know. Where did you find the photo?

If you make it will you post a photo?

Is it alternate pink and white marshmallows, glacé cherries and pineapple chunks??? Might be American, their recipes are often 'extra' like that. Not sure how it would taste in reality...

I love trifle though. I made a Birds packet one for jubilee day, it was ace!

Actually, looking again it might just be chunks of pink and white sponge. Too invested in this now 😄

Could the yellow pink and white be cut up angel cake? With cherries in between? A Victoria sponge and cream in the centre?

Someone who doesn't cook sent me the picture knowing I like to make puddings. I'm guessing it's from a magazine.

I wondered whether the checkerboard effect is made by making up two terrines of different coloured layers - sponge, jelly, mousse etc - slicing them and alternating the slices as they are placed in the serving dish. Couldn't figure out what the middle was. Maybe a rum baba?

Sounds hideously complicated, and could just taste like a mess if the flavours aren't properly thought out. Hence hoping for an actual recipe or name.

I sort of want to make it... but then I think how simple a trifle is...

Reverse image search shows it as coming from an ad for John Lewis Christmas tableware. So perhaps it is an image created for that purpose rather than a real recipe. That would explain the seemingly fantastical mix of colours/flavours!

Nooooo! I want it to be real, retro, and wonderful!

The cubes do look like sponge and jelly cutted up, then lined with whipped cream and a whole (?) sponge cake inserted in the middle.

Very odd.

But possibly delicious.

My gran used to make something like this. The bottom layer was pink and vanilla sponge squares with jelly cubes in between in the middle, the second layer from the bottom was sponge squares with pineapple chunks, third layer from the bottom was jelly cubes and sponge the top layer was sponge squares. There was sponge in the middle of the two top layers. Gran made the sponges and the jelly then cubed it up, she sometimes used battenburg too without the marzipan. There was also a very thin custard at the bottom. Around the sponge on the top two layers was cream. It was basically a fancy trifle. I still have the Women’s Weekly cook book in the loft where the recipe is…. I can do a diagram tomorrow if that helps.

It was very real in the 70s

It gives me AI vibes for some reason, I'd certainly give it a taste though.

You’ve reminded me my mum did a baked Alaska for dinner parties -slice or 3 of Mr kiplings battenberg cake, vanilla ice, covered in home made meringue and chucked in the oven. We thought it was so sophisticated!

That definitely looks like it could be Mr Kiplings battenburg cake, sliced so it can be made into cubes.

There was another mass-produced cake in the 70's that was 3 or 4 layers of coloured sponge with a buttercream in between (and no marzipan) but I can't remember whether or not it had a name.

There are some bits of cube jelly, then it looks as if it was filled with custard (and maybe a fruit jelly) and topped with a victoria sponge and whipped cream?

Last year I made a dessert using Battenberg

cut thin slices and lined round the bowl then made a cheesecake filling - creamed cheese/double cream/sugar/vanilla and whipped up filled the middle with this and layers of strawberries looked and tasted stunning

The 70s were mad when I think of the trifles and cakes. I remember the 4 layered cakes filled with buttercream too. It was a very pale pink coloured sponge with a yellowish sponge in between the very yellow buttercream. For Christmas these cakes often had red and green delicious little jelly sweets on top.

It looks as if some of it could be slices of battenburg cake, and that made me wonder if it's constructed like a charlotte russe.

With other squares/rectangles being carved from a plain sponge cake, the top of which was severed to make the lid.

So I'd put jelly in the bottom, and the first later of chequerboard walls. When set start filling with the custard, then spread jam on the walls, stick on next layer and fill before they cave in (bit fiddly, but would work if the lower cubes were a bit thicker). You could probably use any cake/biscuit up the sides. I don't think the ones that look like jelly can be that - wouldn't be firm enough. I was wondering if it could be a kind of Turkish Delight?