I'm in a book club and we take turns bringing book selections to be voted on for our next read, hosting the book club meeting at our houses, and helping the hostess make food for our gatherings. We meet up on average about every 6-8 weeks, and last night (Tuesday) I was in charge of bringing a dessert. I was gone all weekend doing continuing education so I didn't make anything over the weekend, and I wanted to make something fairly easy and 'springy' for dessert since it's the end of April! The hostess was going to have chili dogs & salad. My mom was the other 'foodie' as we call them, and she was bringing a fresh fruit platter, and a vegetable tray. So, my initial plan was to make fried apple pie, because that happened to be the famed dessert in the book, but it seemed too heavy. So, instead I decided on a Strawberry Shortcake Trifle!
Since I was running to the store on my lunch hour and getting everything prepared on Monday night, I cheated a bit and went with a boxed yellow cake mix (gasp!) I know I know, I LOVE to make everything from scratch, but after a long weekend of swollen ankles I was trying to make a semi-homemade dessert that wouldn't kill my pregnant feet. So...here's what you need for my semi-homemade Strawberry Shortcake Trifle...
Ingredients:
- 1 box yellow cake mix ( I always use butter instead of oil for these...it's delish)
- 2 big containers of fresh strawberries
- 2 pints or 1 quart of heavy whipping cream (my store was out of the quart size)
- 1/2 cup confectioner's sugar
- 1/2 TBSP granulated sugar (optional)
Method:
Bake your cake as directed in a 9 X 13 dish. I prepared my cake dish with butter, and like I mentioned, I usually use butter in lieu of oil for a boxed cake. While your cake cools, wash your strawberries thoroughly, then slice them up. I tried for bite sized slices so it was easy to eat & carry on a conversation. I set aside about 1 cup of strawberries that I diced much smaller, and even mashed down a little and sprinkled them with *optional granulated sugar to get them to make more of a puree. Next, I poured my heavy whipping cream with 1/2 cup of confectioners sugar into my kitchenaid mixer and first let the sugar mix in on a low speed before turning it up to 8 or 10 to whip the cream into stiff peaks. Once the whipped cream was prepared, I taste tested it for sweetness, to me this was plenty sweet, but you can always add more confectioners sugar to suit your tastes. Then I cut my cake crosswise & then went over it lengthwise so that it was cut into bite sized sections. I separated about half of my whipped cream into a separate bowl, and mixed in the 1 cup of mashed/diced strawberries, using a spatula I mixed this until thoroughly incorporated and slightly pink. Lastly, with all of my separate components ready, I started to layer my trifle into my super awesome pampered chef trifle bowl.
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| My cake sliced into bite sized squares |
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| Sliced fresh strawberries |
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| Ingredients for homemade whipped cream |
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| How your whipped cream looks when it's ready |
Layer 1- cake pieces
Layer 2- strawberry whipped cream
Layer 3- strawberry slices
Layer 4- whipped cream
And repeat until your trifle bowl is full.
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| Start layering your trifle with the cake pieces first |
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| The layers look so pretty when it's done |
I used my remaining strawberries to sprinkle onto the top of my trifle, although I had thought of slicing a whole strawberry somewhat artistically to put on the top. But push came to shove after work on a Tuesday night when I was actually assembling my trifle, so I just went with what was quickest!
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| View of my trifle from the top :D |
This dessert was a hit, it's easy, it's pretty, it's super tasty, and it's 'light' tasting. I hope you give it a try! As far as desserts go, this one isn't too bad for you either, it could be made even healthier with a cake from scratch...but I'll save that for another post, this was quick on a weeknight for dessert!
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