The Historic District

JJets upside down cake made me think of this. My mother made it when when I was a very young adult. Usually when we had guests over for supper.

In a large fancy jelly mold,
Fill half full of flavoured jello, stick in the fridge and let set.
Prepair custard and set aside to cool
Once cooled, she would drain a can of fruit cocktail and put the fruit on top of the set jello in the mold and pour the custard over the fruit cocktail.
Make more jello using the cocktail juice and wine rather than water let it cool to the point it wasn't hot but still flowed.
Cut a piece of sponge cake to fit the top of the jello mold and place on top of the custard then poured the jello wine mix over the spunge and stick back into the fridge.
When every thing was cold she would plop the jello mold of custard, and fruit on to a plate.

Hummm, funny things you remember with the right hint. I can remember my mother taking all day to make this. And now as a not so young adault, I can recall the jello was exactly that, the boxed stuff, the custard came out of a yellow can, as did the fruit. And of course the spunge cake if I recall was store bought. Probably cost not more than a dollar back then.

I've heard of trifle, but never knew what it was. This is a step beyond the Jell-O and fruit combos one aunt made from time to time.

having a british mum, I enjoyed my share of trifle when I was young (and Yorkshire pudding too!!)
the English use something other than jello but similar...the custard is Bird's custard which is still available in a blue and yellow container...I remember the bottom being a bread type texture with sherry...
good stuff!

...jade

English gal here
As Jade says above, we grew up with trifle made with Rowntree jelly cubes melted in hot water and poured over sponge fingers( ladies fingers here?) or sliced Swiss roll-yum-with tinned fruit added and allowed to set and then Birds custard layered on top and then something called Dream Topping layered over the custard and covered with sprinkles and then in the fridge to set.
For special occasions we had sherry soaked sponges and real whipped cream instead of Dream Topping on top! Was my dear Dad's favourite dessert

I'm a Brit too... Never heard of trifle being made upside down and served turned out like that! I have a special trifle bowl made specifically for holding a trifle - large and glass with a built in pedestal. You can see it here in a picture from Thanksgiving a decade ago, with a raspberry amaretto trifle (my own, now lost recipe) in it

It would seem there is no standard format for trifle, maybe any thing with custard jello, and canned fruit (with a little booze) can be called a trifle. Mick, your pot pie, steak and kidney with puff Pastery? One of my favourites.

That looks soo good Mick!
Funnily enough I made my first trifle in years just last Christmas for the American relatives and used homemade sponge ,Madeira wine fresh strawberries ,raspberries and blueberries, home made custard and fresh whipped cream.
They all enjoyed it very much and was something they hadn't had before ,so was a bit of a novelty! I always like to make recipes for family gatherings that they may never had before...scotch eggs anyone?

This is what I recal of what the trifle looked like, the top though took the shape of the jelly mold.

If not Scotch eggs how about sausage toad in a hole. Gezzzz dam I'm hungry now.

Haha...Toad in the hole is my go to comfort food with mashed potatoes and onion gravy, I make it regularly! (takes a bit of explaining to those who don't know though!)