Father's Day Trifle

For Father's Day this year, our family went to my parents house. If I remember correctly, my mother was out of town, so my brother's family and my family made sure our Dad had a decent Father's Day. One of Sean's favorite desserts in the whole wide world is what we call trifle. We got this recipe from Sean's parents who got it from an English couple they know well. Its still not a totally authentic English trifle, I think; there is no sherry soaked cake. It is a fabulous dessert, though! Its best when made with fresh fruit, and we had just picked up a few gallons of fresh blueberries a few days before. So, for Sean, my brother (Stuart), and my Father, I made trifle for Father's Day.

Since I made it before my food picture obsession craze started, I was thinking that I didn't have a picture of it. Well, I had forgotten that my sister-in-law, Esther, had taken a picture of it for me. It looks oh so good! Hannah had helped me design the top with a blueberry heart. Take a look:

Blueberry Trifle



To make the trifle:

Make or buy a plain cake with no frosting. I used this recipe: Yellow Cake Mix. When the cake is cooled, put it in the bottom of a trifle bowl, keeping it in one piece or breaking it into chunks. Make some red Jell-o with cranberry juice instead of water. Pour the warm Jell-o over the cake to fully saturate it. Cover it with saran wrap and chill for several hours or overnight. Meanwhile, make some vanilla pudding. You could make it from scratch, but I often use a box of pudding mix. Chill that too. Once the pudding and cake are fully chilled, layer the pudding over the cake. Then put a layer of blueberries over the pudding. Whip some cream with sugar. Spread it over the top of the blueberries. Top with more blueberries. Make sure it is a nice pattern. Don't want a confusing jumble of berries or anything, do we?

Take a picture and then eat it!

These two pictures show us enjoying the trifle. Dylan is my son, age 10, Hypatia is my daughter, age 6. Wade is my son, age 2. John is Stuart and Esther's foster son. Emma is their daughter. Sean is, of course, my husband. Some chubby woman is me. And Janell is my sister.

By the way, this by no means represents anywhere near all of my family. I come from a family of 10 children. Only Stuart and I live near enough to my parents to be there for these little holidays. Janell was only there for a short visit.