Can I be honest for a minute?

 

Ok.  Thanks.

 

So we all know I love baking.  Hello, kind of obvious right?  

 

Well sometimes I don’t feel like it.  

 

Sometimes, I get lazy.  I think this has a lot to do with my day job.

 

I loathe my day job.  Sometimes it sucks out my soul and I don’t get it back until Friday at 5:30pm.  There is nothing rewarding about the world of subprime lending.  Nothing.  It wears me out.  And sometimes, I just want to lie on the couch and watch trashy vampire shows and forget the world.  That’s when I get lazy.

 

This weekend I needed to make a dessert for a barbecue with friends.  I volunteered for dessert, because, well, duh.  Saturday came around and I still had not made anything.  I was pretty sure I wanted to make a trifle.  It’s beginning to look like summer in Wisconsin, which more often then not means hot and muggy.  Trifle sounded refreshing to me.

So there I was. Saturday at 2:00 with nothing made and three hours until I needed to leave.  I went to the store to get the last couple of things I needed and told my husband I might just buy pound cake for the trifle.  He looked at me like I was crazy.  I decided we better hurry back home so I could get started.

 

I made pound cake.  

From scratch.  This was probably the easiest thing I have ever made.  Five ingredients, 9×13 pan, 1 hour and presto change-o, you have pound cake.  It gets all flaky and airy on the top, and spongy delicious in the middle.  Damn good.

 

So at 3:30 I’m pulling pound cake out of the oven with an hour and a half to cool it, make the filling and assemble the trifle.  Oh, also I was smelly, so a shower was in order as well.

 

Somehow I pulled this off.  Once the cake was cool enough I turned it out onto a cookie sheet and put it in the freezer.  I made the lemon syrup for the cake.  I whipped the cream and cream cheese together while the cake cooled.  It just kind of came together absolutely perfectly.

It was so pretty.  I took it on the back porch to take pictures and the dogs helped themselves to some of the left over pound cake.  Good job dogs.

 

Everyone at the barbecue seemed to like it.  

I’m pretty sure this guy did.  He also seemed to enjoy the sugar high afterwards.

 

Really how could you not, pound cake, berries, whipped cream, come on I could eat that for breakfast everyday.

 

Trifles are good desserts to take to a party because they look impressive.  Get a pretty trifle dish.  It helps.  The rest is easy.  Really, really easy.  You don’t have to make the pound cake from scratch, but I highly recommend it.  Plus it makes enough for you to eat the scraps at 6 am when your dog wakes you up for breakfast.

 

 

Triple Berry Trifle

Serves 8-10

 

Ingredients

 

1 recipe pound cake (or store bought loaf)

1 pint strawberries

1 pint raspberries

1 pint strawberries, chopped

1/3 cup lemon juice (approximately 2 lemons)

2/3 cup sugar divided

2 cups heavy whipping cream, divided

8 ounces cream cheese softened

 

Directions

 

1.  In a small saucepan heat 1/3 cup of sugar with 1/3 cup lemon juice.  Stir occasionally until sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat and set aside.

 

2.  Cut pound cake into 1/4 inch slices.  Brush slices with cooled lemon syrup.

 

3.  In a mixer combine cream cheese with remaining 1/3 cup of sugar.  Beat until light and fluffy.  Slowly stream in 1 cup of cream.  Beat until soft peaks form.  In another mixing bowl, beat remaining 1 cup of cream until stiff peaks form.

 

4.  Begin layering trifle.  Start with pound cake.  Cut cake slices to fit bottom of trifle dish.  Next dollop half of the cream cheese mixture on top of cake and spread evenly.  Top with 1/3 of the berries.  Make sure all layers come all the way to the edge of the dish.  This will ensure that you see every layer through the side of the dish.  Repeat process again starting with pound cake, the remaining cream cheese mixture and more berries.  The last layer will be the same; only you will use the whipped cream on this layer.  Top with remaining berries.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour and up to 6 hours before serving.

 

 

Pound Cake

 

Ingredients

 

2 cups flour

2 cups sugar

2 sticks of butter, softened

3 teaspoons of vanilla

5 eggs

 

Directions

 

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream together butter and sugar.  And flour in four additions.  Add eggs, mixing after each one.  Add vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.