By Anne-Marie Nichols of This Mama Cooks! and My Readable Feast

There’s nothing that says fancy dessert better than a trifle. But what exactly is it?

The trifle, also called a Tipsy Cake, a Foole, or some form of Tipsy followed by Hedgehog, Parson or Squire, has been around since at least the 1500s. It’s a concoction of sponge cake, fruit, egg custard, nuts, cream, and liquor like sherry, brandy or rum.

According to Linda Stradley of What’s Cooking America, the English Trifle is a close cousin of an Italian version called "Zuppa Ingles" (English Soup), and seems somewhat related to a Spanish dessert called "Bizcocho Borracho." She says that tiramisu, which is also known as Zuppa Ingles, is considered a Tuscan trifle. (Tiramisu was originally made with custard, not mascarpone cheese.)

For a comprehensive history, see The Charming Confusion: Trifle

Trifle recipes

Traditionally, English trifles are made around Christmas. But I find that summer time is ideal since you can use fresh berries. Lynda Balslev features a Summer Berry Trifle on her blog, Tastefood. She makes hers with a “from scratch” lemon sponge cake and custard.

If you’re not up for making trifle layers from scratch, Lori at The Recipe Girl blog and website comes to the rescue with her Layered Berry Trifle that uses store bought sponge cake with cream cheese and whipped cream instead of custard.

But like all good recipes, trifles can be customized to fit your dietary needs. If you have a gluten free diet, try Betty at Puppies and Worms Gluten Free Chocolate Peppermint trifle recipe. For you vegans, there’s a Vegan Mixed Berry Trifle or Clarion Content’s Vegan Trifle Recipe. For raw food practitioners, there’s even a Strawberry Mint Brownie Trifle - from The Daily Raw Café.

No trifling matter

Once the basic trifle recipe of cream, custard, berries and sponge cake became too ordinary, other versions started to pop up like so many meringue mushrooms. If you like peaches, try Dona Lupe’s Kitchen’s Peach Trifle. During the fall you can make Michelle of Michelle’s 2 Boys and Baby Girl’s Pumpkin Trifle or Mindy’s at A New Song’s Peanut Butter Trifle.

There are trifles for chocoholics, like Katie at Salt and Chocolate’s Brownie Cheesecake Trifle for the Cure. Abbey of Abbey Avenue’s Brownie Trifle Recipe and Jon Defreest’s Food Fight Blog Moms Trifle Recipe both use crushed Heath Bars for an added crunch.

Trifle bowls

Now that you have many delicious trifle recipes to try, you need a trifle bowl! (Well, that is except for Muslim Hippie’s My Mom’s Easy Trifle Recipe which doesn’t use one.) I was the proud owner of the trifle bowl my mother used in the 1970s, but it broke this year. So now I have an excuse to buy the Pampered Chef 15-cup trifle bowl with a removable stem and snap on lid that lets you easily transport and refrigerate your trifle and store the bowl. It’s my dream trifle bowl.

But you don’t have to get too fancy or spend much money on yours. Since making trifles are in fashion again, it’s easy to find an inexpensive bowl at stores that sell kitchen gadgets and cookware. In a pinch, you can use any type of clear bowl, like a punch bowl or a very, very clean round fish bowl. When you’re not using it for dessert, you can fill the bowl with candles, decorative rocks, or dried flowers for a fabulous centerpiece.

Happy New Year and happy trifling!

Anne-Marie teaches parents how to combine children’s books and cooking to promote family togetherness at her blog, My Readable Feast.

And you can also find her at This Mama Cooks! On a Diet sharing healthy recipes and fitness and weight loss tips.

You can see lots more tempting trifle recipes by searching for them on the FoodieView Recipe Search Engine

This entry was posted on Monday, December 29th, 2008 at 9:49 am and is filed under Recipe Roundup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.