Puppies and Trifles

Deep in the depths of the summer, it has been…well, interesting. This past week was John’s 17th birthday —hey hey (can you EVEN believe it?)! So instead of a basic cake, we decided on an upgrade to a season-fresh Raspberry Trifle! Also, meet the new Great Dane puppy, named June, the latest and greatest new addition to the family.

It’s been a bustling summer full of camps and A LOT of dishes. It’s stupid hot and for some reason, my house is constantly smelling like burnt toast. How is it possible to go through 3 rounds of dishes in one day? Oh! Because I have 5 hungry monsters making countless amounts of toast and noodles. THE CRUMBS!!

The Big June Bug

Some may ask, why in God’s green earth would you take on a puppy with basically your whole house under construction? Well simply, I’m a glut-ten for punishment. We had the opportunity to get her locally and we just jumped on it. Ugh, I exhaust myself at every expense, but I LOVE HER!! (I’m also grieving my Rocky baby. When you lose a dog, sometimes you do crazy things.)

This girl has brought such joy to the whole family. She is a Great Dane and could not be more calm and collected than she already is. I am in love with these dogs.

Sometimes the best things in life just lay around with their tongues out (this includes teenagers–most days). Cute or not cute, I still get the urge to plant a mustache on her face or paint her nails. HOLD ME BACK Y’ALL!

Wish me luck with potty training and sleeping at night. There have been many nights of howls and bowls. Lots of bowls (insert an eye roll and a big angry huff emoji).

Here is what I made for John’s 17th birthday. What a sweet kid he is. He makes me SO proud (insert googly heart eyes emoji).

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Season’s Fresh Chocolate Almond RASPBERRY TRIFlE

Here’s how to do it…

First and foremost, I’d buy the cake at a local store or bakery. I did make my own yellow cake for the recipe but I have this yellow cake recipe I lOOVE so I just had ‘ta. But really, make your life easier and just buy a white or yellow cake, split it in the middle and in small squares so it’s easy to assemble AND easy to spoon out.

I would start by making the pudding. Let me tell you, I remade this recipe countless times ( I lost count at 4) to ensure it was just perfect. This will now be a new forever recipe for the fam, I just love it. It’s perfect. The only thing I would change is if you want to change out the vanilla with almond or an orange extract and make a chocolate almond or chocolate orange pudding. Sounds amazing!

Technique

I trialed this recipe with a double broiler. Honestly, I would just use a saucepan. It will cook faster in just a saucepan and you do have the risk of it burning, but if you stick it out for 15-20 minutes and whisk it after it comes to a small boil, it will be worth it. The double broiler made the time TRIPLE the time to finish. NOT in the mood. I have food to eat and naps to take.

Therefore, I would simply use a saucepan. Put on medium heat, add flour, corn starch, salt, cocoa, and brown sugar—whisk together quickly and add the milk.

In one of my measuring cups, I put my 4 yolks. I then slowly added the hot cocoa mix into the yolk WHILE WHISKING. If you don’t whisk your life away, you may end up with chunks, which are scrambled eggs. I’ve done that one too many times!

Once the yolks are mixed well and closer to the temperature of the milk mix, you can add them to the saucepan while—whiiiisking!

Now, bring to a small boil. Just enough it starts to thicken—a lot!

Once you have it nice a thick, you can take it off the heat and let it cool. I’ve covered it with plastic and let it cool in the fridge as well. It does fine. You may just have some condensation on the top. Chill for at least 4 hours.

To make the raspberry sauce…

Honestly, just add 2 small packages (or one of the double packs), 1/2 cup of sugar, and boil in a saucepan. Let cool and put half of the mix on the bottom of your dish.

Layering the trifle…

In your trifle glass bowl, start with raspberry on the bottom, then cake, then chocolate pudding, whipped cream, raspberry. If you have more cake you can add another layer of cake, chocolate, raspberry, then almond whipped cream.

This was such a hit! It will be one you can add to the list of crowd-pleasers.

Hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did for John’s birthday. One of my favorite trifles!

With Love,

Farmer Fran

While you are at it…try some of summer’s favorite hamburgers or blue ice cream!!