Black Forest Trifle

When Pampered Chef came out with their dessert cookbook I found this recipe in there. It was wonderful and I thought it would make a great Valentine's Day tradition. So it became a tradition. Then after a while I thought it would be better if we didn't have it since it isn't really "healthy". But then after thinking about it, I decided it is okay to indulge once in awhile. Granted we haven't had it every Valentine's Day, It is fun to make once in a while. We invited over two families for dinner and I asked Jensen what he would like for dessert since he picked the dinner. He chose this. Half of the kids complained so I had to make a second one and ended up creating a Oreo Trifle. That will be the next post after this one. :) But please note that I am NOT a photographer so these pictures do not do the desserts any justice. I will say, homemade whipped cream makes EVERYTHING dessert taste better. :)

Black Forest Trifle

Ingredients

• 1 pkg. (9 oz.) devil's food cake mix (plus ingredients to make cake)
• 2 bars (1.55 oz. each) milk chocolate candy, divided
• 1 can (30 oz) cherry pie filling
• 1 tsp. almond extract
• 1/2 cup cranberry cherry juice
• 2 cups cold milk
• 2 pkgs. (3.3 oz.) white chocolate instant pudding and pie filling
• 1 (8 ounce) container of whipped topping (I made it with homemade whipped cream today. Oh my goodness, divine!)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Cut an 8 1/2 square parchment paper and lay in bottom of square baker. Prepare cake mix according to package, spread over bottom of baker. Bake 25 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center come out clean. cool completely.
2. Loosen cake from sides of baker and invert cake onto cutting board. Cut cake into 1 inch cubes set aside. Chop 1 1/2 of chocolate bars using food chopper. Reserve remaining chocolate for garnishing.
3. Combine cherry pie filling and almond extract in small batter bowl, remove 1/2 cup for garnishing and set aside. Stir juice in cherry pie filling in classic batter bowl.
4. Pour milk into classic batter bowl, whisk in pudding mixes until mixture begins to thicken. Fold in whipped topping..
5. To assemble trifle, place half of the cake in bottom of Trifle Bowl. Layer half of the cherry pie filling mixture evenly over cake cubes. Sprinkle with half of the chopped chocolate; top with half of the pudding mixture, pressing lightly. Repeat Layers.
6. Garnish top of trifle with reserved cherry pie filling and chocolate curls made with reserved chocolate. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes before serving.

Yield: 10 servings