The new year has come, and I am already dreaming about my garden, and summertime tea parties that I love to have with friends and family.  One of the easiest and most decadent desserts to prepare is a trifle, and I have been hooked on them for 15 years.   Inside its glass bowl, this sinful pleasure looks like a swirling oracle, fortelling the gorgeous delight that awaits!  Ridiculously easy, they look most impressive.  And because they are encased in a glass serving dish you needn’t worry that a cake will slide, or melt.  They are so easy to transport, perfect for a woodland fairy tea!  

Ingredients:

1 recipe of any white or yellow cake you love.  A pound cake from the store works nicely, if you are in a time crunch, go for a boxed mix.  I will never tell!  Bake, cool and cut into 1″ cubes.

Bottled cherries or cherry pie filling, 1 large or 2 small cans OR fresh sweetened strawberries*

2 packages of cream cheese, cream with 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla, thin by folding in 1/4 of the whipped cream mixture

1 pint of heavy cream, sweetened and whipped with 2 teaspoons of vanilla

Amaretto Liqour

White chocolate shavings or other garnish

Assembly:

I like to use a footed bowl for its grand appearance, however, if you dont have one, don’t let that stop you.  A glass bowl of any type will work well, and allows you to show off all those gorgeous layers of ruby fruit and cloud-like creaminess!

Layer 1/2 cake cubes, sprinkle lightly with amaretto

spoon in layer cream cheese mixture about 2 inches thick

A layer of glistening berries make sure they reach the sides of the bowl and can be seen through the glass

repeat until the bowl is full

spread the top with a blanket of whipped cream and garnish with berries, shaved white chocolate or whatever you choose.

Chill until service. 

* if you use bottle cherries, you may need to drain them slightly.  Not marachino cherries

Trifles are best served with a generous spoon. 

Use your imagination with this dessert, use ginger cake with pumpkin fluff around harvest time.  Use lemon curd and lemon cake with blueberries or mandarin oranges to make a tart sherbety dessert.  Consider a frozen trifle with layers of chocolate cake, amaretto ice cream and cherries (dont forget the fudge sauce please!) for a sinful birthday treat.

Trifles are a great way to use fruits of the season, and you can use any combination of cake, fruit and creams that you love. 

If you are having a fairy tea, then you should place one jordan almond within the layers of your trifle.  (inform your guests so they do not choke!)  The  guest that receives the almond in her portion is granted a wish by the fairies!  Garnish for a fairy tea should be edible glitter from your local craft store.  What a dazzling spectacle that would be!

This is a recipe that makes nearly any vegetarian squeal in delight!  A hearty salad filled with flavor and you wont be hungry in an hour!  Everyone I have served this to has begged for the recipe so here it is!  A favorite for young and old.  I devised this recipe on my own as an answer to what to bring to gatherings or potlucks that I could eat, that nobody else would be bringing.  We pick out own morels on my fathers land in northern Mn.  That is part of the fun and magic but it is just as good to grill other mushrooms you may like for an earthy flavor.

Wild Thyme Pasta Salad

~1 family sized package of fresh cheese or spinach tortellini

~1 small jar of pesto or homemade pesto if you have it (lucky!)

~small jar of sun dried tomatoes packed in oil.

~mushrooms, you choose the variety, we love morels which we pick fresh here in Northern MN, or grilled portobellos are fantastic too

~Black Pepper

~Roasted pine nuts

~Fresh Baby Spinach

~Garlic to taste

~ Fresh thyme from the garden (rosemary would be good too!)

~Fresh Parmesan cheese

Optional ingredients:

Olives, Capers, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions, meat if you must.

Instructions:

Grill mushrooms on the stove or outdoors, slice sun dried tomatoes, chop herbs and spinach.  Boil pasta in salted water until al dente.  Drain and place in a large bowl with all ingredients including fresh spinach.  It will wilt with the warm pasta and stay green and lovely.  Chill and add a bit of olive oil if it looks dry and toss.  It depends on how much oil is in the tomatoes and pesto.  You can serve it hot or cold.  (great for potlucks!)