In the soup

"So who's making the trifle?" It was decision time for the Christmas party. No one was willing to make the trifle. Excuses flowed. "I'm already making a cake." "I can't do it. It always comes out wrong." "It's an English thing, I wouldn't know how to make it." There were a few half-hearted looks at recipes online. Some aghast observations, "alcohol, cake and jelly? In just one dish?" In the end no one made the trifle. It was that unheard of things: a trifle-less party.


Roll on a week and I'm in France. Dessert appears, a superb homemade apple cake in a puff pastry crust swimming in a pool of 'creme anglaise' (English vanilla cream). I refer to it as custard. "

Apple cake à la George Sand

No, not custard, you know 'Zuppa Inglese'", I'm corrected. But I know that Zuppa Inglese (English soup) is...well...trifle. A debate ensues on the relative merits of creme anglaise, creme patissiere, custard and zuppa Inglese. It's all vaguely confusing. The dessert, by the way, was delicious.


Now one thing I know is that I don't like Zuppa Inglese. This is because the sponge cake or ladyfingers layered in it are soaked in a liqueur called Alchermes, a sickly sweet pink coloured liqueur which is found in many Italian desserts. As its flavour is reminiscent of medicinal syrups I wasn't surprised to find out that in the past it had been used as such a remedy, most notably for the smallpox.


The soaked sponge is then doused in creme patissiere or custard as for a trifle.  It may then be topped by a chocolate sauce or meringue or whipped cream. The Zuppa Inglese may have originated from the 16th century kitchens of the Dukes of Este, the rulers of Ferrara. They would have asked their cook to reproduce the 'English trifle' which they had enjoyed on their frequent visits to the Elizabethan court.


Another story would have it that a Neapolitan pastry cook made it for Lord Nelson and had taken inspiration from the English booze-laden trifles. Hence, he gave it the name of Zuppa Inglese (English soup).


Whatever its origins Zuppa Inglese is a form of trifle albeit without the fruit and the jelly which goes into traditional English trifles. But the real question remains: is Tiramisu a trifle? 

Honfleur - Normandy