Trifles - How easy are they?

[imnotaceleb]

Never made one, but fancy making one for boxing day.

If I prepared on christmas eve - would be be ok?

Very easy. I used to do mine out of a Birds pack, but doing a non-traditional variation this year:

Raspberry jelly (bought a block to dissolve in hot water) will be set with rasperries and trifle sponges in it.

Next layer will be DH's homemade vanilla custard. (But bought will do too).

Top is whipped double cream.

And I plan to sprinkle it with Dolly Mixtures, just for fun.

If you are adding booze, put it in the jelly, substituting for some of the water. (mine's virgin as I am pregnant)

I'm sure you'll also get "proper" recipe advice. But this one is fun and I reckon it will go down a treat!. Good luck and have fun with it!

oh, and it will last fine if made a day ahead. Perhaps add the cream on the day though.

yes fine

remember if you use jelly in the bottom layer you need to leave time for it to set before adding the custard, and the custard needs to be cold when you put it on

They can be very easy indeed! Mine's a lot like Casper's.

Half a packet of trifle sponges, broken into bits and with a glassfull of sherry trickled over them, plus a drained can of mandarin segments. 1 pint of strawberry jelly, made up with a mix of water and the juice from the mandarins.

Into fridge to set

Make up a pint of custard - I use custard powder and milk and make it a bit thicker than normal so it sets, but you can also use a ready made pack if you don't mind it being wetter.

Back into fridge.

Top with whipped cream - as Casper says, maybe better leave that bit till the day itself - I often do it the night before, but not much earlier than that.

Top with a few mandarin segments, if you remembered to keep some!

My mum always uses blancmange instead of custard - it's easier to get it to set firm, and you get strawberry flavour there too. I love it like that

Yum - all sounds fairly easy. Will give it a try.

My recipe.

Madeira cake,
Home made or good quality jam
Custard, powdered or homemade
Double cream
Chocolate
Whisky or Sherry

Break up madeira cake
Melt jam and pour over
mix it all up
Leave to cool and set
Add alcohol
Add custard layer, make it slightly thicker than usual then leave to set.
Whip cream and add as top layer(do xmas morning)
Then chocolate over the top.

I'm doing mine with jam swiss roll, strawberry jelly, a tin/carton of 'best' custard and top with whipped double cream. Then DS can add some sprinkly bits of decoration.

very easy

tesco trifle sponges
pour over fresh or tinned raspberries and juice

layer of custard then layer of cream

that's all I do

if you want to do a sherry one just substitute sherry for the rasps to soak the sponge and then add fruit of choice, custard then cream or a mix of yogurt and cream to make it slightly less rich

never bother with jelly in it myself tbh

help - what are trifle sponges?

mil has given me a nigella reciepe to do for christmas day and can't find these.

do you need to go to a specialist shop?

my stand-by is lemon cheesecake if all goes wrong!

trifle sponges available in all supermarkets. Use any other cakey stuff instead if needed.

they are just rather dry cakes really

so if i do a small vanila sponge or two, would that be okay?

dead easy - even I make it
you can get trifle sponges from the supermarket. My mum always used a jam swiss roll instead though. Vanilla sponge should be fine

trifle sponges are normally with the jelly, custards, merigues etc in the supermarket.

Thanks all am going to give this a try for boxing day.

Dead easy to make trifle - my recipe is fab (even if I do say so myself) but not good for kids!!

Put any sponge bits (trifle sponges, swiss roll, whatever you prefer) in the bottom of the bowl. Mix the juice from tinned peaches (not syrup) with some cointreau (your preference how much to add); pour over the sponges and leave to soak.
Chop some of the peach slices into chunks and "spread" over the soaked sponges.
Any custard is good but it's well worth the effort to make proper confectioners custard recipe. Add this to the sponge and fruit - no jelly required... spoils it in my opinion!!
Add the whipped cream and sprinkle with chocolate flake pieces and mandarin slices. This sounds weird - peaches and mandarins - but trust me, it works

i hate commercial trifle and was ready to hate this reciepe form delia. actually after making the custard (OMG!!) and recovering from the shock that it actually came out well. had no double cream left for the top so used greek yogurt mixed with golden syrup. oh, and no jelly - hurray!

I've made mine fro tomorrow, amaretti and biscotti, soaked in amaretto and pureed raspberries, then a alayer of rasps, custard, more rasps, plenty of cream, toasted almonds on top - simple but delish

Ducky - that sounds lovely.

I do a raspberry and port trifle that is mega-easy and bloomin' lovely:

Cut up a couple of madeira cakes and put around the edges of a glass trifle dish. Pour over some port then some raspberries. Put more cake slices over the top to sort of encase the raspberries. More port.

Pour over a tub of 'fresh' ready made custard (buy the good stuff with vanilla in it not the freakish yellow stuff).

Leave it a few hours.

Top with whipped cream and toasted almonds.

Whilst it's chilling make a port syrup with port, some sugar and cardomon pod - cook until reduced. Cool. Drizzle over top of trifle.

I'm just in the process of making Nigella's from her xmas book. Made it last year and it was a big hit.

Just mad mine in about 5 minutes flat.

chocolate muffins in the bottom in pieces

slosh on some baileys

tin of custard

whip some cream and dollop on top (the whipping takes the time)

grate some choc on the top.

taaaada!

I'm a boudoir fingers kind of girl myself.....

This bloody thread has just reminded me i have a trifle to make

Me too - will have a glass or two of the sherry as I slosh it in dish!