My First Trifle: Lemon Berry

For as much as I like to bake, I’m almost embarrassed to admit that until this summer, I had never – ever – made a trifle. It’s one of the easiest desserts to make, and it was the perfect solution when trying to figure out what to bring over to my sister’s house for our playdate/bbq. I had an ungodly amount of berries on hand, so I went for a lemon berry trifle.

When looking for a recipe, I noticed that most of them required cream cheese. My sister has a serious aversion to cream cheese, so I ended up just making up my own recipe. I also relied on Cool Whip and boxed angel food cake mix since I was seriously pressed for time. The biggest disappointment was that I don’t actually have a trifle bowl (GASP!), so I settled on a clear mixing bowl (I can’t believe I admitted that). My version did end up a little on the sweet side, but overall I think it had a really great, refreshing flavor.

Lemon Berry Trifle
My own recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 box of Betty Crocker angel food cake, prepared in loaf pan
• 1 box lemon flavored instant pudding
• 1 box French vanilla flavored instant pudding
• 12 oz. Cool Whip
• Assorted berries (I used blueberries, strawberries, and blackberries – about 2 qts total)

Directions:

1. Prepare the angel food cake according the box. Once cooled, cut into 1″ cubes.
2. Prepare the two boxes of pudding together. Mix in half of the cool whip and then refrigerate for at least a half hour.
3. Get your berries ready by washing, drying, and slicing them how you’d like.
4. To make your trifle, layer the cake, pudding mixture, and berries. I started with the angel food cake and then added a layer of the pudding mixture. I arranged the berries along the edge to they’d look nice through the glass bowl, and just dumped a thing layer in the middle. I topped that with a little more pudding mixture and then I went through the pattern again. My last layer was the rest of the Cool Whip topped with the remaining berries.
5. Chill for another half hour and serve the same day.

Tang Pie Parfait

Tang Pie. What in the heck is that? That was my first question when I heard of this. I went to a Memorial Day party this weekend. This is an annual party that has a different theme each year. This year’s theme was country/hillbilly/white-trash. I always bring a dessert, so I needed to come up with something appropriate. My husband came to the rescue and asked around at work for ideas. Alas, Tang Pie was thrown into the mix.

I didn’t like the idea of bringing a questionable pie to such a large party, so I decided to make individual Tang Pie parfait things. To my surprise, they turned out! It tasted like a less cold version of orange sherbet.

Next time I think I would make them in shooters. This amount was a bit much and a little too rich, but all in all, a pleasantly surprising success!

Tang Pie Parfait
Adapted from this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup Tang orange drink powder
• 8 oz. sour cream
• 12 oz. Cool Whip
• 1 can sweetened condensed milk
• 1 box of Nilla Wafers
• 1 bag of Orange Slices candy
• Clear plastic cups

Directions:

1. Mix together the Tang, sour cream, Cool Whip, and sweetened condensed milk. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
2. Crumble three Nilla Wafers in the bottom of each clear plastic cup.
3. Fill the cups with the desired amount of the Tang mixture.
4. Crumble another Nilla Wafer on top of the Tang mixture.
5. Garnish with an Orange Slice candy.
6. Keep refrigerated and serve chilled.