The Case of the Missing Sparklers

4th of July Recipe: Red, White, and Blue Trifle from TheKitchn

When it comes to the 4th of July, I'm a sparkler sorta gal. Big fireworks are nice for viewing, but I don't want things on fire blowing up in my yard. Neither does my Jack Russell, Guinness, who has to wear his Thundershirt just to get through the night. See more about that here. So, weeks ago I squirreled away my box of sparklers and set about making plans to host a 4th of July celebration with friends.

I love to end dinner parties with a memorable dessert so I chose a wonderful, (patriotically correct!?) English trifle for the finale. The recipe comes from my favorite foodie blog, The Kitchn with Faith Durand. You can find this amazing recipe for 4th of July Red, White, and Blue Trifle here.

This show-stopping dessert takes a little effort but the "WOW" factor is well worth it.
You begin by making a vanilla pudding from scratch. No Jello-o pudding here please! If you have never made your own pudding, this recipe is a good place to begin. Just remember, when making the pudding, Do Not Stop Stirring, especially as the pudding thickens, and watch your heat (brown scorched bits are not pretty).

Once you've made the pudding, basically this is a "no-cook" ice-box dessert, it's all about the layering. The first layer, a combo of cubed angel food cake and half of the warm pudding, takes an hour to set up in the fridge. It is the infrastructure that keeps all of layers from mushing together. While the pudding layer is chilling you prep the fruit and make the whipped topping.

Let the layering begin! Red fruit on top of the chilled layer, half the whipped topping, another layer of cake, then the remaining vanilla pudding, the blue fruit and then the remaining whipped topping. A final decorative layer of fruit is the finishing touch.

 Best made the day you serve it, so be sure to plan for three hours of chilling time.

What I LOVE about this recipe? It is NOT sweet. Surprising, I know! It looks heavy but it is light and refreshing and has a creamy, unctuousness. It's everything a summer dessert should be and it feeds a crowd. But don't let the size stop you. Everyone went back for seconds!! At the end of the evening I scooped generous helpings into "to-go" boxes for my guests. Mike and I enjoyed French toast smothered in berries and cream for breakfast the next morning. This is a trifle that keeps on giving!!

Oh...and the sparklers? The plan was to put them in the trifle and light them as a spectacular finale to a great 4th but could this squirrel find them? Sigh... No doubt they will resurface sometime in December!! A wee American flag did a perfect job as stand-in. Happy summer and Bon Appetite everyone!