Trifle

The kidlet requested a trifle instead of a birthday cake this year. I had never made a trifle (well, I'd made banana puddin', but never a non-Southern trifle). I used the Cook's Country recipe for Tipsy Squire Trifle as a model; substituted a strawberry syrup for the one and a half cups of sherry because, hello, fourteenth birthday party, and anyway I don't even like sherry all that much; substituted lemon curd for jam because yum.

I have the following observations.

1. Yum.
2. I cannot make a sponge cake to save my life. I found a sponge cake recipe (also from Cook's) and followed it to the letter twice, and both times the layers went as flat as a slice of bread as soon as I took them out of the oven. My grandmother, the farmer's wife, is ashamed of me in the great beyond.
3. Store-bought angel-food cake was just fine, truly. I was afraid it would introduce an artificial taste, but it didn't. Mostly I tasted custard.
4. About that time, I began to suspect that the name 'trifle' might be sarcastic. Pretty big undertaking, unless you happen to have some stale cake just lying around and have my grandmother's skill at making custard.
5. If I'd only been feeding my own kid, I still would have left out the sherry, but I would have added some Grand Marnier with the strawberry syrup.
6. Seriously, can I say yum? This stuff was so good.
7. Pretty sure a person could use milk instead of cream in the custard and it would still be delicious.
8. My grocery store did not have any macaroons anywhere. Trader Joe's vanilla wafers were a fine substitute. I don't buy Nilla any more; have you read the ingredients lately? Also, somewhat off topic, most brands of ginger snaps don't list either ginger or molasses. What is the world coming to, Grandma?
9. People who don't like mushy food won't like this.
10. I like mushy food, and in conclusion, yum.