Trifle

Trifle is a type of English dessert. It is made by stacking layers of sponge cake, fruit and whipped cream inside of a glass dish. The sponge cake is soaked in sherry before being stacked into a trifle.^[1] Different ingredients can be added to a trifle, like chocolate or fruit jelly.

Trifle

Trifle
Serving temperature	Cold
Main ingredients	Sponge cake, fruit, whipped cream
Cookbook: Trifle   Media: Trifle

History

The oldest books describing trifle are English cookbooks from the 1500s.^[2] The oldest recipe for trifle comes from Thomas Dawson's cookbook The Good Huswifes Jewell, written in 1585.^[3][4] It was made by cooking cream, ginger, rose water and sugar into a custard.^[4] These earlier trifles, it is claimed, 'derived from the flavoured almond milk of medieval times'.^[4] Early trifles were originally a dessert made by mixing fruit and cream,^[5] but now the word "trifle" describes a dessert made with cake, cream and fruit.^[6] This modern type of trifle was invented in the 1750s.^[2] Recipes from that time describe trifle as sweet biscuits soaked in wine layered with custard and covered in a whipped milk.^[7]