Trifle

Trifle to me is Christmas food. For as long as I can remember my Mum would say, "I'll make a trifle - Dad likes his trifle." So now I make it too, partly for Dad and also because others of us have come to like it too - AND associate it with Christmas - for our family it's a case of - what's a Christmas meal without Trifle for dessert?!!!

I wasn't real pleased with my trifle last Christmas - it was OK but it seemed just ordinary - no stand out flavours - so I decided to do a bit of research. I found a long version of 'Proper English Trifle' in one of Nigella Lawson's cook books. I decided as she suggested, that the use of raspberries, combined with orange juice and Grand Marnier liqueur might be just the right things to give some perky flavour.

This year things went much better. I popped into the wee booze shop by our supermarket and encountered an Indian bloke in a turban and upon asking for a small amount of the booz-y substance for my trifle - it all ended up with me explaining the trifle tradition which he was most interested in! Prior to that he was concerned that such a small amount of the liqueur was NOT going to be enough for 'dessert'..... which would have been well-founded if we were going to drink it!!!

I waited for Mum to turn up so she could give me a hand in the construction of the trifle. She added some key 'intelligence' to the job - a recipe in the good 'ol Edmond's cookbook for egg custard which is completely free of custard powder. She whipped that up while I prepared the sponge pieces, lathering each in our home-made plum jam and setting it into the bowl with locally grown, fresh raspberries tucked in around them. I then soaked the whole thing in beautiful sweet orange juice from our own back-yard oranges and my precious Grand Marnier liqueur. I have never before paid $8 for what is effectively an 'essence' and used it all in one hit! A Christmas luxury! Trifle making was completed with a layer of whipped cream, sprinkled with sliced almonds. Mwah! I was much happier with this year's Christmas Trifle and have made notes so I can do the same thing next year! Mum's gorgeous, creamy custard was certainly an excellent improvement!

I enjoyed repeating the whole trifle-making process a few days later to take around to our friends for dinner (minus the booze this time!) instead I added a lot more orange juice and used up the remaining raspberries. We all tucked in and they confessed to polishing the remains of it off later in the evening after we had gone home!