When you can’t find the music to get down and boogie, all you can do is step back in time. Ball of confusion when nothing is new and there’s nothing doing, step back in time
– Kylie Minogue, Step back in Time
I feel that ball of confusion is probably a polite way to describe 2020. Maybe in a subconscious desire to block out the present, I decided to step back in time with dessert on Christmas Day. And when I say step back, I mean step waaaayyyy back. We ate a dessert that could have sat on the table of poor old Mad King George – an 18th-century trifle! Fitting I think as so many of us came near to losing our sanity at least once over the last 365 days!
You will note that most of the pictures of my trifle have the dish adorned with some ivy leaves. I not only did this to up the Christmassy green and red of the recipe but when washing said dish before making the trifle I dropped it in the sink and broke a bit off the bottom. It still stood perfectly well but was not very sightly! It was way too late to go and buy another trifle dish so it had to be disguised!
The recipe called for Boudoir biscuits. I had never heard of them before. But, in my imagination they are a glamorously louche biscuit eaten by the French only in the privacy of their bedrooms. Turns out it is just the French name for what we here would call sponge fingers or savoiardi. It also turns out that pretty much every country has a different name for these sweet treats – my favourite being the name used in Uruguay and Venezula – “plantillas” meaning little plants!
So first thing we do it give our little plants a good old watering in some booze. I used marsala because I had some but the recipe suggests sherry. I also really like the label on the marsala bottle. It has a jaunty little horse, with what looks like a plant pot on its side, pulling a wagon containing what is presumably a keg of marsala. Is the plant meant to be a boronia plant? And is the plant the same thing that the little horse is wearing on his head?
Incidentally, marsala wine was first brought to England in the 18th century so using it is not entirely out of place!
I topped the soaked biscuits with custard and then topped the custard with the syllabub. The recipe asks for the trifle to syllabub be decorated with “blobs” of red currant jelly. I went to 3 supermarkets but I could not find red currant jelly for love or money! The shelves were piled high with all sorts of condiments containing cranberries. But no redcurrants in sight! I subbed in some raspberry jelly and fresh raspberries for my topping.
The trifle was delicious!! And proof that a step back in time can be a wonderful thing!
18th Century Trifle – The Recipe
This recipe comes from Sarah Edington’s excellent book Classic British Cooking.
This will be my last post for 2020 so, as ever thank you all for reading and commenting and being a part of this! I wish you and yours a fabtacular year ahead!
2021 here we come!
