Merely a trifle.

My husband wants trifle for Christmas. Well, Christmas Eve dessert anyway.

I haven't done trifle before... all he could tell me was that it had 'swiss roll, brandy and jelly' in it...

Mrs Beeton has two recipes for trifle - neither of which contain jelly, but both of which contain 'ratafias'...( I had no idea what ratafias are, but the ever helpful Mrs Beeton explains in the glossary as 'A culinary essence; the essence of bitter almonds. A special kind of almond biscuit, in the shape of drops, are called ratafias. The name is also give to liqueur flavoured with almonds.' So there you go).

Anyway, every single recipe I look at is almost completely different from all the others... so I think I will be making some kind of amalgam of all of them...

Now, to decide whether to make my own sponge or buy one?