Desserts · By Sharon
Trifle — Raspberry
This trifle was inspired by Grandma Marty, with a change of fruit from her strawberry to our preferred raspberry, which we love for its tartness. It has such beautiful layers, and in the footed glass bowl it makes a stunning entry when carried to the table! It has become something of a classic at festive occasions among our friends, and they tend to softly sigh when taking their first bite. It was the dessert at our annual winter raclette feasts at the Pillibeit's for roughly 20 years running. One of the interesting dynamics is the serving of this dessert. It is so beautiful, and takes so much time to prepare, that I can't easily bring myself to dig into it with a serving spoon. So James has always had to do it, but he sometimes is a bit hasty in digging in to serve it. I still recall one time at the Pillibeit's when he served it all out into the individual bowls in the kitchen, without carrying it ceremoniously to the table, without admiration from the assembled guests. I may have been a little testy with him. Trifle offers creative latitude, with Linda wowing us once using a chocolate and caramel theme. Our raspberry version remains one of the favorites, combining dense buttery homemade pound cake (often highlighted in strawberry shortcake) with rich creamy vanilla pudding, brightened by tart tasty raspberries.
Ingredients
Pound Cake (for Trifle)
- ½ cup butter
- 1⅛ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup white sugar
- 2 medium eggs
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- ½ cup sour cream
- ¼ tsp baking soda
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp grated lemon peel
Trifle
- 1 can Eagle Brand Milk
- 1½ cups cold water
- 1 package (4 serving size — 102 g) Jello instant vanilla pudding powder
- 2½ cups whipping cream, whipped up (with no added sugar)
- Cubed pound cake (from recipe above)
- 2 × 300 g bags frozen raspberries, fully thawed, with juice reserved
- ½ cup good raspberry jam
- ½ cup toasted almond slices
Pound Cake
- 1
Preheat oven to 325°F (300°F convection).
- 2
In a large mixing bowl combine all ingredients for the cake, and mix on low speed until blended, then on medium speed for 3 minutes.
- 3
Pour into a greased (butter) and floured 8 inch baking pan, and bake for 18 minutes.
- 4
Allow to cool and then cut into 2 cm cubes for use in the trifle.
Making the Trifle
- 1
Combine the Eagle Brand milk and water, mix. Then add the pudding mix and beat until smooth.
- 2
Refrigerate this mix until it sets up.
- 3
Fold the whipped cream into this set-up pudding mix.
- 4
Make a fruit mixture by mixing together the raspberry jam and some of the reserved raspberry juice until it is smooth and a little runny.
- 5
Using a tall trifle bowl, assemble the trifle: you will have 3 layers of pudding/whipped-cream mixture, but only 2 layers of cake and fruit (the top layer will just be the pudding/whipped-cream mixture).
- 6
Spoon in ⅓ of pudding mixture for your first layer, then embed ½ of the cake cubes, then cover with ½ of the fruit mixture, and ½ of the thawed raspberries.
- 7
Repeat for the second layer.
- 8
The 3rd (top) layer will be your 3rd layer of pudding, topped with toasted almond slices.
- 9
Refrigerate the trifle for about 4 hours to get it set up.
A note from Sharon
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