Originally trifles were very much like fools (pureed fruit and cream concoction) and were confused with one another for years but trifle really started out as an interesting way to use up stale cake. In the 4^th edition of Hannah Glasse’s book, the Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy, 1751 edition, she describes the trifle as follows:  ”Cover the bottom of your dish or bowl with Naples biscuits broke in pieces, mackeroons broke in halves, and ratafia cakes; just wet them all through with sack, then make a good boiled custard, not too thick, and when cold pour it over it, then put a syllabub over that. You may garnish it with ratafia

cakes, currant jelly, and flowers, and strew different coloured nonpareils over it.” Today, trifles are still made in much the same way and this Irish Mist trifle certainly  becomes  “that most wonderful object of domestic art …” ( Oliver Wendell Holmes,  1861).

Ingredients

Custard

• 125 ml  full cream milk
• ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsps sugar

Sponge Cake

• 3 large eggs
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest
• 85 ml hot water
• 185 ml sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 ½ tsp baking powder
• 315 ml white cake flour

Other ingredients

• 425 ml whole raspberry jam
• 15o ml Irish Mist
• 1 small container of fresh raspberries (or frozen – thawed and drained)
• 425 g of mixed berries in fruit juice, drained (tins or frozen, thawed and drained)
• 250 ml heavy cream
• Blanched almonds and walnuts to decorate.

Method

• Make the sponge on the day before you plan to serve the trifle
• Preheat oven to 180 C and grease and flour 16 cm cake tin.
• Sift flour, baking powder and salt together and set aside.
• Whisk the eggs using an electric until they are very thick and pale and then beat in the sugar gradually.
• Slowly blend in water, the vanilla extract and the lemon zest on low speed and then add the dry ingredient swiftly and mix thoroughly.
• Pour into prepared cake tin and put in oven immediately, baking for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean.
• To make the custard, pour the milk into a pot and bring it almost to a boil before removing it from the heat and setting aside.
• Whisk the eggs and the sugar eggs and sugar together lightly in a bowl until quite light and then, gradually, whisk the milk into the egg mixture.
• Rinse out the pot with cold water, return it to the mixture and stir this over very low heat until it thickens – but don’t allow it to come to the boil.
• Turn the custard into a bowl and add vanilla extract to taste – set aside to cool, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin forming.
• To assemble the trifle, halve the sponge cake horizontally (use fishing line or dental floss) and spread with raspberry jam to make a ‘sandwich’.
• Cut this into slices and arrange them on the bottom and around the sides of a large glass dessert bowl and sprinkle very generously with Irish Mist.
• Mix the mixed berries lightly with the raspberries, reserving a few raspberries for decoration purposes.
• Spread the fruit over the sponge cake to make as even a layer as possible, then pour on the custard, cover the trifle and put into the fridge to chill.
• Just before serving, whip the cream, spread it over the custard layer and then decorate with blanched almonds, the walnuts, the reserved fresh raspberries and whatever else you would like to add.