Eggnog Trifle

I love serving a trifle at Christmas to cap off our traditional English menu of roast prime rib of beef and Yorkshire pudding.  If we've a big crowd, I make enough to fill my footed trifle dish.  When there's only a few of us, I think its fun to serve individual trifles in pretty crystal or vintage glasses. I even have a few special child-friendly glasses for the children!

To add a bit of extra flare, sprinkle in a variety of berries (fresh or frozen).  Another fun idea I've run across, is to bake the cake in a 13 x 9 dish, then slice sections vertically to about 1 inch thickness.  Use a cookie cutter to cut enough cake shapes to line the outside of a large glass trifle dish.  Proceed with cubing and layering as directed.  The cut shapes look so pretty from the outside.

Ingredient amounts vary according to how many you'll be serving.  The following will make six individual trifles.

1 box vanilla pudding mix (the cheesecake pudding works well too)
2 cups eggnog
1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
powdered sugar to taste
2 - 3 cups fresh berries, or frozen berries, thawed and drained

1/2 recipe of Eggnog-Spice Bundt Cake (2 - 3 cups cubed cake)

port wine, sweet sherry, madeira, or apricot brandy

Prepare pudding according to package directions, using eggnog instead of milk. Place plastic wrap directly on the pudding, and set aside.





Beat the whipping cream until stiff.  Add powdered sugar to taste.




Traditionally, a trifle is made by first soaking the cake with a sweet liquor, and then layering as follows: cake, fruit, pudding and whipped cream.  Dividing the ingredients into more layers, makes a more interesting and better tasting overall dessert.  Be creative!


For the above trifles, I started with a dollop of whipped cream, a large berry, a dollop of pudding, a few cubes of cake - sprinkled with your choice of suggested liquor (omit for the kids) - a spoonful of berries, pudding, more berries, whipped cream, cake (sprinkled with liquor), pudding and whipped cream.  I finished each trifle off with a blueberry on top!

For the children in the family, I make alcohol-free trifles in special holiday glasses (plastic, in this case)!