The Graceful Dame Print

Summer Berry Trifle

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.
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Light, airy, decadent, and bursting with both color and flavor, this summer berry trifle is the perfect dessert for sharing at summertime gatherings.

Ingredients

Scale

1 Angel Food Cake. (Store bought or homemade)

1 - 3.4 oz. package Vanilla Pudding.

1 3/4 c. Milk.

1 tsp. Vanilla.

1/3 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.

Instructions

Making the Pudding/Cream Cheese Layer

  1. 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.
  2. Next, add the softened cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Beat on a high speed until the cream cheese has been worked into the pudding and no large lumps remain.
  3. 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. Mixing bowl containing vanilla Pudding mixture.

Now, its ready to be used!

Creating the Summer Berry Trifle

Prepare the rest of the Ingredients.

  1. Wash all the berries and slice bigger fruit, like strawberries. A strainer full of colorful strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries.
  2. Cut up the angel food cake. Slice the cake into 1 - 1 1/2 inch slices. Then cut each of those slices into 3-4 pieces each. 
  3. 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 1/3 of the ingredients in each layer, etc.) 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 Trifle.

  1. Begin assembling the Trifle. First, place a layer of angel food cake pieces in the bottom of the bowl using about 1/3 of the cake pieces. Try to leave just a bit of space between pieces for the pudding to nicely coat them. Torn up pieces of angel food cake in the bottom of a clear bowl on a wood table.
  2. Next, use a large spoon to scoop about 1/3 of the pudding onto the angel food cake layer and spread it out for an even layer. Vanilla Pudding
  3. Now comes the creative bit! Yay! Layer on the fruit on top of the pudding. You can either just try spreading 1/3 of the fruit evenly over the dish or you can create a beautiful, colorful fruit patter. (I always choose the latter. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries layered on top of vanilla pudding
  4. 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!
  5. Cover with plastic wrap, then put in the refrigerator to chill for a couple of hours before serving.
  6. Finally - you can pull off that plastic wrap and present you food delicious food are to you friends and family! Enjoy! 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.

Notes

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.

Find it online: https://gracefuldame.com/summer-berry-trifle/