Hartley's Raspberry Jelly - 135g

Jelly holds up half of British pudding. It is the wobbly layer in a trifle, the other half of jelly and ice cream, and the thing that turned up at school dinners in a square that never quite stayed square.

Here in Canada, people come looking for it when a recipe from home needs the real one. The trifle is meant to taste like your mum's, and your mum's started with a red Hartley's packet, so that is where yours starts too.

This is the 135g tablet: flat, light and happy at the back of the cupboard until a party, a pudding or a rainy afternoon calls for it. Break it into cubes, dissolve it, add cold water and give it a few hours in the fridge. Set it in a bowl, a mould or little cups for the children, or pour it over sponge and fruit and keep going.

Hartley's is just as well known in Britain for its jam, so a jar on the toast and a jelly in the fridge make a fair day's work. For a full trifle, people tend to pick up custard and something spongy for the bottom layer at the same time.