Chocolate & Berry Trifle
My mom makes the most delicious 'death by chocolate' trifle desert. It is always filled with the most delicious cream, pudding, chocolate, and other yummy things. Trifle is a layered desert, and while I have not played around with the trifle process too much, I did create this fun little variation a little while ago and I thought I would share it here! This chocolate and berry trifle is full of chocolate cake, pound cake, whipped cream, chocolate pudding, and of course, berries! This is an extremely easy recipe because you can use boxed pudding, boxed cake, and other quick alternatives rather than making everything from scratch. While I do really enjoy making things from scratch, in a recipe like trifle there are definitely ways to make the process a little easier and quicker!
Directions
If using boxed cake, the first step is to bake the cake of course. Use the instructions given on the box, usually it requires a liquid (water or milk), veg oil, and three eggs. After the cake has cooled completely, break it up into small bite sized pieces.
I was able to find pre-made pound cake at my local Safeway, making the process even easier. If you don't have the access to pound cake, or the ingredients for pound cake, feel free to use boxed vanilla cake. The density and flavour of pound cake is really great, but a simple vanilla cake will do. Just like the chocolate cake, break the pound cake into small bite sized pieces. I chose to keep the 2 kinds of cake (chocolate and vanilla) in two different bowls to allow for nice coloured layers!
While the cake is baking, go ahead and make the chocolate pudding. I use the Jell-O brand which is extremely simple to make and comes together very quickly.
The pudding will take around 5-8 minutes to set, so during this time, if you are using homemade whipped cream, go ahead and whip the cream. Add sugar and vanilla to your taste (not too much, we dont want to over sweeten the already sweet dessert), and whip it until stiff peaks form. We want the whipped cream to be very thick so that it will hold up in the trifle. For this reason, my mom uses cool-whip because of its firm texture. I prefer homemade whipped cream to cool-whip, but either works in this desert!
The last step is to assemble! Usually my mom and I assemble this in a large punch bowl because it can be so big! However, depending on how much you are planning to make or serve, this trifle also does really well in individual portions. I find glass jars work really well for this, as well as wine glasses, or personal dessert bowls. I begin the layering process with the chocolate pudding. On top of that I add some crumbled chocolate cake, and then a few berries. The amount of each layer depends on the size of the vessel you are serving the trifle in. For smaller servings like the glass jar, do not make the layers too big as you will quickly run out of space. After the berries, I put a layer of whipped cream, then I add the crumbled pound cake, another layer of berries, and some of the crumbled skor bar. Keep repeating these layers, alternating chocolate and vanilla, ending with a generous heap of whipped cream and berries on top! I like to sprinkle even more of the skor bar on top to garnish.
It is likely that you will need to adjust the amount of pudding and whipped cream depending on how much cake you use. When I make these individual portions, I use only about a quarter of a box chocolate cake and only a few pieces of pound cake. If you are planning on making a giant serving of the trifle and use the entirety of both cakes, I suggest preparing 2 packages of chocolate pudding and making a LOT of whipped cream! 😀
This is an extremely delicious desert that is sure to impress both your taste buds. The lightness of whipped cream and berries balance the dense nature of the chocolate pudding and the pound cake.
Enjoy!
Let me know if you try this recipe & be sure to come back for more great recipes!
Thanks for reading,
Madison xx