Recipe of the Week

Here's a little goodie I made for our New Year's Eve party. I got the recipe from a Pampered Chef cookbook that I received for Christmas.

Black Forest Trifle



Looks good, yes?

Here's what you need...

1 package of devil's food cake (plus the eggs and stuff to make it)
2 milk chocolate bars
1 can of cherry pie goo
1 t. almond extract
1/2 c. cranberry-cherry juice (apparently our small town doesn't stock this, so I used cherry Juicy Juice juice instead...)
2 c. cold milk
2 packages of instant white chocolate pudding (I could only find the sugar free kind.... boo)
1 container of Cool Whip


First of all, bake yourself a devil's food cake. Let it cool completely before you move on to the other steps.

Once your cake has cooled off, cut it into 1 inch chunks. The recipe calls for squares, but they definitely look more like chunks to me. Set them aside for awhile.

Take 1-1/2 chocolate bars, and chop them to little pieces. Set this aside too.

Dump your cherry pie goo in a bowl and add 1 t. almond extract. Remove about a 1/2 c. of this for your pretty topping. Add 1/2 c. of your cherry-like juice to the rest of the mixture and stir it all together. Set this aside also.

Next, make your pudding by whisking your two packages of pudding and 2 cups of milk together. Once it begins to thicken, fold in the whole container of Cool Whip. That's right... the whooole thing.

Now you are ready to assemble your trifle. You can use a pretty little trifle bowl like I did. But don't worry if you don't have one handy... I assure you it tastes just as good in an ugly bowl too.

First you put half of the devil's food cake chunks at the bottom of the bowl.

Pour half of the cherry goo mixture on top of the cake layer.

Sprinkle half of the chopped up chocolate bar over the cherry goo layer.

Top with half of the pudding mixture.

Repeat the layers until you are left with a smooth white chocolate pudding layer on top.

Now for the fancy-scmancy garnish stuff.

Use that 1/2 c. of cherry goo you saved to make a nice little circle on top of the trifle. Then use a vegetable peeler or a grater to make the little chocolate shavings. Voila! You have yourself a very impressive looking trifle.

Be sure to refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving. Or even better, make it the night before so you don't have to worry about it the next day.

Yum Yum Yum. That is all.