Tag Archives: Trifle

Trifles and Patriotism

baking, dessert, holiday, menus, recipes, spring, summer, themes June 8, 2016 Leave a comment

What’s red, white and blue and inappropriately timed on a random weekend between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July?

Sarah’s version of a triple berry trifle of course.

Because why would someone make this in time for the first patriotic holiday of the year, or instead wait until the second patriotic holiday of the year when they could randomly decide to bring it to a friend’s house for dessert on a completely plain Sunday?

If the above statement sounds like you then we should be friends. If you are my husband, stop rolling your eyes at yet another moment when your wife threw things together at the last minute and pretended like it was in the works all along. That’s just how she rolls and you married her so let’s just grab a spoon and dig in together shall we?

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triple berry trifle, summer desserts, fruit, trifle recipes, fourth of july recipes, memorial day recipes, strawberry shortcake trifle

The nice thing about trifles is that they are fairly easy to make. In fact, it typically takes more time to gather and chop the ingredients than it does to put the entire thing together.

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You may remember this recipe from a few years ago. If you want to revisit it and see how cute and tiny my friend’s little girl was at the time, head on over to the previous post to check it out.

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If you’re like me and you remake a recipe forgetting that you actually made and posted it already three years ago then stick around and read below for the aforementioned triple berry trifle revisited.

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Triple Berry Trifle (feeds 4-6 or 1-2 depending on how hungry the fellas are)

  • 1 package shortcake cups, cut into 2-inch cubes
  • 1 pint strawberries, sliced
  • 1 pint blueberries
  • 1 pint raspberries

Pudding Layer:

  • 6 TBL sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 1/2 C cold water
  • 1 package vanilla instant pudding
  • 9 oz fat-free frozen whipped topping, thawed

In a medium bowl, whisk water and sweetened condensed milk until combined. Add pudding mix and stir for another minute or so. Let mixture set for 1-2 minutes. Fold in cool whip. Set aside.

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Start with a layer of cake and then alternate blueberries/raspberries, pudding mixture and sliced strawberries. Repeat until you reach desired height, run out of ingredients, or just become disgusted at just how large that trifle dish is. Feel free to get creative once you reach the top layer or just copy the photo like I do whenever I’m re-creating a recipe “on my own.”

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A leprechaun was here

baking, birthday, cake, dessert, green, holiday, spring, st. patrick's day March 17, 2014 Comments: 3

Remember that time I tried to make an ombré layer cake for my mom’s birthday and messed up the simplest part of the process, resulting in a randomly striped cake?

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I do.

By now I’ve heard the following reassurances:

It still tastes great. 

Hunny I think it’s perfect!

This is the best cake I’ve ever had. 

I think I actually prefer the colors this way.

I’d like to take a moment to thank my mother for saying each and every one of them. 

Thanks mom!

I’m sure you prefer the #3 layer in place of the #2 layer. You’re right. It looks better that way.

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Leave it to mothers to justify completely unjustifiable things to their daughters in an attempt to make them feel better.

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In reality we should blame Dad. He’s the one who invited me to join him for a pedicure in the middle of my cake-making process. I’m sure if I had not been distracted by the relaxation and soaking, I might have remembered the setting the layers on the cooling racks in the wrong order so I could be unpleasantly surprised when I cut into the cake after dinner.

Thanks Dad!

Seriously though. That was a great pedicure.

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So today, in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, I present you with a chance to wow everyone with your very own St. Patrick’s Day layer cake. 

After being inspired by a much prettier version from Cupcakes and Cashmere late last week, I had a feeling this one was going to be a Pinterest fail. Perhaps I willed it to be. Regardless of my layer issues, the cake and icing were delicious.

Here are some tips for not messing up your ombre cake experience:

1. Fill the cake pans more than halfway. I wanted to keep my layers thin since I was making four different colored ones. In the process I overcooked them a little. The cakes have a nice crunch to them but I found that my best layer was the one without the food coloring in it which also happened to be the thickest. Unless you are doing ombre, bake two colors and cut the cakes in half.

2. Use this cake recipe but consider doubling it (see above)

3. 10, 5, 3, 0. Those are the amounts of green food coloring I used for each layer of my cake. Divide the batter into bowls and add coloring separately. Do your dark layers first so you can adjust for the lighter one. Remember what order they are in because they look the same from the outside.

4. Use this icing recipe. Consider doubling it.

5. Don’t stress about the outcome. In the end, I was the only one who cared that my layers were out of order. My mom loved that her cake was homemade and let’s face it, the boys only care about blowing out the candles and eating the ice cream that goes with the cake anyway.

I’ll be back later this week to talk about this little St. Patrick’s Day gem.

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And the gigantic biceps I built carrying it during my commute this morning.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Triple Berry Trifle

birthday, cake, camera, dessert, holiday, observations, photography, puppies, recipes, sports June 27, 2013 Leave a comment

Remember when I used to post recipes? You know, actual recipes of real food. Between the juicing and the travel, I’ve been on a bit of a cooking hiatus. And I’ve been informed as of late that not everyone is a fan of my juice cleanse posts. So fortunately for all of you the cleanse is over and I actually cooked this week.

We had a few birthdays to celebrate this June so after a few scheduling attempts, my girlfriends and I were able to get together for a casual summer dinner last night. Even Ella joined in on the celebration.

triple berry trifle simply social blog

I’m ready for solid food, mom!

But before I get into the recipe details let’s catch up on the other excitement happening this week. In case you’ve been living under a rock (or don’t live in Chicago) you might not have heard that the Blackhawks won their second Stanley Cup in 3 years on Monday night and the city has been buzzing with excitement ever since. And seeing as how I live down the street from the United Center, I did what only felt natural after the final horn blared, I banged my new cast iron skillet while standing on my balcony and then dragged my boyfriend (half-shaven playoff beard and all) outside to join the celebration. Because that’s just what you do when a team wins a championship. You take it to the streets!

blackhawks stanley cup champions simply social blog

As you can see from my photos the West Loop got crazy. Not really. This was the extent of it. It was nothing like the madness that would soon occur in Wrigleyville but fun nonetheless. The biggest problem cops in our neighborhood ran into was people standing on top of the planters in the middle of the road to get a shot of the crowd. Not that I did that or anything. You can also see from the photo how thrilled Matt was to have accompanied me down to the festivities. Perhaps stopping him in the midst of shaving the playoff beard had something to do with it. Or the cast iron skillet banging. Whatever the case he was a good sport and he’ll thank me for it later in life. Or in another life. At some point he’ll thank me.

Tuesday was just your average workday until one of my co-workers nonchalantly mentioned that the cup was downstairs in my building. Say what? A couple of higher-ups brought it to an event down at Phil Stefani’s and word spread fast. Mostly by me. Just minutes before I had mentioned to my sister that me sending her the cup-tracker google map link did not mean I was stalking it like a Bieber fan, but rather that I thought the feature was cool. I believe my exact words were, ‘Besides, it’s not like it would ever come here’.

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photo on the left is mine, right courtesy of Tim Kline

And whaddya know, it did.

All of the cup excitement rubbed off on Finn too as he decided to 1) obstruct my only method of spying on him throughout the day and then 2) throw a party. Kids these days.

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We have a little break in the excitement before the big parade tomorrow so it left just enough time for our birthday dinner. Since we were having the dinner over at one of the guest of honor’s condo, I wanted to make something easy to transport and light for the summer. So naturally, I made a 8+ layer trifle, stopping halfway up because I was only feeding 4 people. Ha.

triple berry red white and blue trifle simply social blog

Triple Berry Trifle

  • 4 shortcake cups, cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 1 pint strawberries, sliced
  • 1 pint blueberries
  • 1 pint raspberries

pudding:

  • 6 TBL sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 1/2 C cold water
  • 1 package vanilla instant pudding
  • 9 oz fat-free frozen whipped topping, thawed

In a medium bowl, whisk water and sweetened condensed milk until combined. Add pudding mix and stir for another minute or so. Let mixture set for 1-2 minutes. Layer on top of cake and then scrape it off after realizing you forgot cool whip. Fold in cool whip. Now you’re ready to layer.

red white and blue trifle simply social blog

Start with a layer of cake and then alternate blueberries, pudding and sliced strawberries. Repeat until you reach desired height, run out of ingredients, or just become disgusted at just how large that trifle dish is. Top layer should be an attempt at a pretty pattern of strawberries and blueberries.

triple berry trifle simply social blog

Don’t worry it never looks as good as the pictures predict it will. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. I did mine the night before and just took it out to bring it to room temp before serving.

Prefer the original? get the full recipe from Skinnytaste.com 

triple berry trifle simply social blog

It just so happens that this triple berry trifle would be a great addition to an upcoming 4th of July BBQ. Get it? Because it has red, white and blue berries? Trust me I didn’t plan it this way. Lord knows I don’t typically get around to posting a 4th of July recipe til at least Labor Day. But hey, sometimes things just work out.

Way to go Hawks!