Its very true that food takes you on little happy journey through memories… our family motto has always been suffer the main course to get to the pudding… and I definitely inherited the dessert gene.
My mum was an exceptional cook, and my Dad was exceptionally good at pudding eating. Together they hosted the classic 1970’s Dinner party frequently at the weekends entertaining friends and family.
Mum would always make a Dessert Trolley… Divorce would have been on the cards if she had ever decided to miss dessert in favor of a fish course.
The morning after the dinner parties my parent were in bed, a lie in, strong black coffee and alka seltzer probably with hindsight.
My brother and I would sneak to the fridge… And our eyes would light up… In the fridge were a number of desserts, covered in cling film… usually a massive 1970’s glass trifle bowl on the bottom shelf.
On the assumption that the parents would not have a clue how much was left from the previous night, and the fact that as long as we were quiet and let them sleep in… we could tidy up the trifle bowl. We would take two dessert spoons and dig into the trifle.
So for me a sherry trifle transports me back to Sunday mornings and my fabulous childhood. To this day I love trifle, its my favorites dessert of all and most of all I love it for breakfast at the weekend.
My Mums Secret 1970’s Trifle Recipe
Lyon trifle sponge cakes split and buttered with raspberry jam sandwiched together and cut into 2cm slices.
Layer the trifle sponges at the bottom of a huge trifle bowl,
Pour over raspberries from a tin
Add a very generous slug of sherry and add a little of raspberry juice to ensure the trifle sponges are soaked but not soggy
Make up some Bird’s custard. Cut down the amount the milk to ensure that the custard will set firm.
Leave in the fridge to set.
Whip up double cream with a little icing sugar and vanilla essence.
Smooth on the cream and pipe some blobs around the outside.
Decorate the top of the trifle with some angelica and glace cherries to get the 1970’s look. If trying for the classy look go for some ratafia biscuits crushed around the outside.
Its not acceptable to add blancmange or hundreds and thousands…. Its just wrong.
Thanks for sharing this memory. It made me laugh and reminded me of my dearest mum’s trifle. Yum!