On Sat, 15 May 2021 21:42:03 +0100, Sam Plusnet <***@home.com> scrawled in
the dust...
Post by Sam PlusnetPost by steve hagueEven as a child I couldn't be doing with trifle, nasty stuff. I didn't
like jelly either, except in the concentrated cubes it used to come in
before it had been boiled. I've never had much of a sweet tooth,
although I do enjoy certain flavours of ice cream. I accidentally bought
salted caramel flavour a while ago. Can people actually eat that stuff?
I was never keen on trifle, thus letting down the side since kids were
obviously supposed to love it.
The husgod and I both loved trifle but had very different ideas about what
the word meant - this led to Trifle Wars - I may have mentioned this
before.
I never saw a trifle made by my mother-in-law but I came to the conclusion
her son hadn't either, he had just received a portion of the trifle which,
once served in a bowl, looked a bit of a mess.
In my world, I had helped my mother decorate many trifles, so the
appearance of the whole dish was important to me. Nicely layered in a glass
dish (in our case, usually the deep top of the pyrex chicken roaster). A
layer of sponge (or boudoir fingers) soaked in sherry, topped with tinned
fruit and a layer of jelly. Then a layer of (Bird's) custard, topped with a
deep layer of stiffly whipped cream, smoothed out for decorating with
angelica and glacé cherries, as little flowers. It looked wonderful and
tasted great. Even tee total Scottish Grannie found it hard to resist and
always seemed surprised when she tasted the alcohol.
My own method was similar, though I used strawberries picked and frozen in
the summer, having realised this worked well when they were going to be
encased in jelly anyway.
The husgod made a bowl of pink blancmange, a bowl of chocolate blamange, a
bowl of vanilla blancmange and a bowl of red jelly. I can't remember if any
cake or booze was involved (I never ate any of his) but there was probably
a can of fruit in it too. Once set, he would put large spoonfuls of each
into a big dish to make a colourful mess and top it with spoonfuls of
whipped cream and colourful sprinkles.
His mother, sister, brother and the nieces and nephews all seemed to think
this was what a trifle looked like. Other guests seemed to recognise mine.
We always served both at the big Christmas party, there were seldom any
left-overs.
--
Penny
Annoyed by The Archers since 1959