This summer berry trifle is simply stunning! I just love how the berries add bright, vivid pops of color and flavor, while the angel food cake brings a light, airiness to the trifle, and the vanilla cream cheese/pudding layer provides a delightful decadence.

Summer Berry Trifle - Layers of angel food cake, vanilla Pudding, and berries in a clear glass bowl. The bow of resting on a wooden surface surrounded by loose berries.

Are you hosting or attending a backyard barbecue, family reunion, or summer picnic? Looking for a mouthwatering, showstopping dessert that everyone is going to love? You're definitely going to want to try this Summer Berry Trifle! Just don't plan on any leftovers - it's going to get cleaned up pretty quickly!

The red, white, and blue colors of this trifle make it deliciously patriotic, too. Its perfect for occasions like Memorial Day July 4th picnics and barbecues!

You'll love that this dish comes together so quickly and easily - you really don't need to have a whole lot of cooking/baking experience to make it. Which, personally, I consider a totally win, especially when I am the one hosting and I'm trying to get a lot of cooking and cleaning done.

That being said, let's get to the recipe!

A strainer full of colorful strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries.

Ingredients

An Angel Food Cake. (Store bought or homemade)

1 - 3.4 oz. package Vanilla Pudding.

1 ¾ c. Milk.

1 tsp. Vanilla.

⅓ c. Powdered Sugar.

4 oz. Cream Cheese, Softened.

1 - 8 oz. container Cool Whip.

2 lbs. Fresh Berries. (I like to use strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries in this dessert! You are welcome to use any combination of these or any other berries/fruit you think would be delicious in this.)

Please note: My trifle bowl is very large. To fill it, I need to double this recipe! Decide how much you want to make based on the amount of people you are serving and choose amount of ingredients and your serving bowl accordingly.

Directions

Make the Pudding/Cream Cheese Layer.

To begin, add the milk and pudding to the mixing bowl and mix on a low-medium speed for about 5 minutes. Then, stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl with a spatula.

Next, add the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla and beat on a high speed until the cream cheese has been worked into the pudding and no large lumps remain.

Turn off the mixer and add in the cool whip. Mix a final time on a medium speed until the cool whip has been completely worked into the pudding.

Now, its ready to be used!

Prepare the Rest of the Ingredients.

Wash all the berries and slice bigger fruit, like strawberries.

Cut up the angel food cake. Slice the cake into 1 to 1 ½-inch slices. Then cut each of those slices into 3-4 pieces each.

Decide how many layers you want your dessert to have. (If you want 2 layers, use half of the ingredients in each layer. If you want 3 layers, use ⅓ of the ingredients in each layer, and so on.) I'll explain the recipe for 3 layers but if you are doing a different number of layers, adjust the proportions per layer accordingly.

Assemble the Summer Berry Trifle.

Begin assembling the Trifle. First, place a layer of angel food cake pieces in the bottom of the bowl using about ⅓ of the cake pieces. Try to leave just a bit of space between pieces for the pudding to nicely coat them.

Next, use a large spoon to scoop about ⅓ of the pudding onto the angel food cake layer and spread it out for an even layer.

Now comes the creative bit! Yay! Layer on the fruit on top of the pudding. You can either just try spreading ⅓ of the fruit evenly over the dish or you can create a beautiful, colorful fruit patter. (I always choose the latter.

Repeat these layers two more times - angel food cake, then pudding, and then berries. Make your final layer of berries as eye catching as possible because that is the layer everyone will actually see!

Cover with plastic wrap, then put in the refrigerator to chill for a couple of hours before serving.

Finally - you can pull off that plastic wrap and proudly present your lovely, artsy creation to your friends and family! Enjoy!

Helpful Tips

Substitutions

Angel Food Cake - While the angel food cake is especially delicious in this recipe due to it's light, airiness, you are welcome to switch this out for another type of cake. I think any type of vanilla cake could be quite tasty in this recipe, though I have never tried it with any other type of cake.

Vanilla Pudding - If you are not a fan of using packaged pudding - no worries! Simply swap the package of pudding and the milk for two cups of your favorite, homemade vanilla pudding!

Cool Whip - The cool whip is an easy swap. Simply whip 8 oz. of heavy whipping cream into stiff peak. Add a teaspoon of vanilla and about ¼ c. powdered sugar (or powdered sweetener of your choice), stir, and add the recipe in the place of the cool whip.

Powdered Sugar - you can omit this ingredient, if you prefer a less sweet dessert, or you can substitute it with a powdered sweetener of your choice.

Serving Suggestions

Instead of putting this in one big bowl, you could choose to create single serving cups using clear, plastic or glass dessert cups! Just do a single layer of cake, pudding and berries!

This dish can be served immediately after making. However, I recommend putting it in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving, just to let it set up a bit. Also, I'd recommend serving it the same day as you make it, just so the berries are plump and as fresh as possible.

Storage

You will definitely want to keep this summer berry trifle in the refrigerator. If properly refrigerated, this dish should stay fresh 5-7 days in the refrigerator.

I would not recommend trying to freeze it, as the berries could end up getting very mushy.