Fresh Strawberry Trifle

Quick, great tasting and pretty desserts are things I always try to make for special occasions. On holidays and special occasion days, when you usually don't have the time or the patience to make something nice and great tasting, I think about what I have in the house and how I can whip it in to something good.  I always have berries in the house, because the hubby loves them, and I also always have cream cheese in the fridge and frozen whipped topping in the freezer.  There are so many things you can make with these two ingredients.  I was trying to figure out a dessert for Easter, and I started thinking about what I had on hand to make something.  I could put the strawberries, cream cheese and cool whip together, but that would just be an OK, light, something fluffy thingy to eat.  Not my kind of dessert.  I wanted something a little heavier than that.  I thought cake in it would be good, and some lemon zest.  This is what I came up with and it was so good. Glad my brain kept thinking!  

Recipe Below 

In my trifle bowl and ready to eat.

 It looks pretty with toasted pound cake crumbs on top and a few scored strawberries for decoration.

Fresh Strawberry Trifle

Ingredients

1 store bought pound cake, cut into 1" cubes, save the crumbs

2 16 oz containers of fresh strawberries, washed, stems removed, reserve 2 w/stems for top

1/4 cup of regular sugar

3 tablespoons of water

2 8 oz packages of cream cheese

1 1/2 cups of confectioner's sugar

1 8 oz container of frozen whipped topping

1 whole lemon, zested

Directions
Toast the pound cake crumbs in a small frying pan, be careful not to burn them. Set aside.

Slice strawberries and place in a bowl.  Sprinkle the regular sugar over them and add the water.  Mix them up and set aside.

Beat cream cheese until no longer lumpy.  Add the confectioner's sugar and continue to beat until all is combined.  With a rubber spatula fold in the whipped topping, go easy so as not to deflate the air in the topping.  Add all but about 1/2 teaspoon of lemon zest (reserve for the top) to the cream cheese/topping mixture. Layer 1/3 of the cake in the bottom of the trifle bowl. Cover with 1/3 of the strawberries/juice. Cover strawberries with 1/3 of the cream cheese mixture.  Repeat layers ending with the cream cheese mixture on top.

Top the trifle with the toasted pound cake crumbs and scored reserved strawberries.  Sprinkle with lemon zest. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.  Refrigerate leftovers.

MMMM.....Pound Cake!

Pound cake is a comfort food for me, it's rich, buttery and moist.  What other three things do you need in any cake, I mean you could add frosting, that ALWAYS makes a cake better, but pound cake alone is great.  To me pound cake is an all day food, you can eat it for breakfast and as a dessert after lunch and dinner.  It's great by itself with a cup a joe or tea, toasted all alone, or with a scoop of ice cream and chocolate sauce, caramel sauce or both, or raspberry sauce and whipped cream. I could go on and on, but I won't, you get the picture.  I would eat it all , I am telling you I love it that much!  

OK, so I am back in the kitchen after decorating the house for Christmas, more on that later. I got bored yesterday and made a batch of my favorite chocolate chip cookies (check out the recipe from July 31, 2013 blog) and this pound cake.  The whole house smelled wonderful as all this was baking, chocolaty from the cookies and then lemony from the cake.  The hubby will be pleased, he gets his sweet after dinner and can dress it up however he likes.  Oh, the little things in life that make us happy!

Recipe below.

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Simple fresh ingredients is all it takes to make a delicious, rich, buttery and moist pound cake

 My old standby - Baker's Joy for spraying and flouring the baking pan.

 Cream the butter.....

 Add the sugar.....

 Add the eggs, one at a time.....

 Flour and salt....

 Vanilla, lemon zest and a little milk.....

 Mixing is complete and ready to go in the pan.  This took all of  less than 8 minutes to mix.

 Spread it out into the prepared loaf pan and smooth out the top.

 Bake for 1 1/2 hours (90 minutes) or a cake tester when inserted comes out clean.

 Easily removed from the loaf pan (it's the Baker's Joy, good stuff!), cooling on  a wire rack and perfectly golden brown.

 So now it's cooled and I get to taste it, yippee!  Rich, buttery and moist, just like I said.  I dusted it with some powdered sugar, hmmm let's see, what will I have with it tonight?

I think I'll have it plain with a cup of tea!

Rich and Moist Pound Cake

Ingredients  - All Ingredients should be at room temperature

1 cup butter

1 3/4 cup sugar

5 large eggs

2 cups all purpose unbleached white flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

zest of 1 lemon

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

1 tablespoon milk

Directions

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Grease and flour your loaf pan (or use Baker's Joy).

In a large bowl of a mixer, on medium speed, cream the butter until it is softened, slowly add the sugar, beat until fluffy and pale yellow in color. Add eggs, one at a time, and beat after each.  Whisk together the flour and salt in a small bowl, then add to the mixture and beat until combined.  Add the lemon zest, vanilla, vanilla bean paste (see note) and the milk, mix until all is combined.

Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 90 minutes, or a cake tester when inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven, let sit for about 3 -5 minutes, before inverting onto a wire cooling rack.  Cool completely.  Slice and serve plain or with your favorite toppings. 

NOTE:  If you do not have vanilla bean paste, use 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract. So 1 1/2 teaspoons of vanilla total.

A Pound Of Cake

Pound Cake is rather plain, but tasty.  It's always a good standby, so you can make it ahead and keep it in the freezer, you just thaw and slice and don't have to worry about frosting.  You can make a lot of other desserts out of pound cake, for example - A trifle, slices toasted then topped with ice cream and chocolate sauce, strawberry shortcake or any other fruit shortcake, these are just a few.  You can also flavor it with different extracts or nuts.  I made this Pound Cake yesterday, it has a little bit of lemon zest in it for flavor, the recipe is below.  I used a Nordic Ware Pumpkin Pan to make it festive for Fall, it can also be baked in a tube pan. I didn't put anything on it, it's just great all by itself!

A few ingredients you will need.  Have the butter and eggs at room temperature. I always have my ingredients separated as to how they are added to the recipe. Example: Eggs cracked in a cup and ready to be added, flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl and mixed together, lemon zested before I start mixing.  It just makes sense to me to do it that way.  Mixing goes much faster.

 Ingredients measured and ready to be added.  This is the Nordic Ware Loaf pan I used.  I've had it for a very long time and found it at William - Sonoma.  They still have it with pumpkins on it but a different design.

 Again, don't forget the Baker's Joy!  Spray the inside of your baking pan with it.

Beat  the butter, sugar, eggs, lemon zest and vanilla.  Then add the flour mixture.

 This is how the batter will look.  It's very thick so spread evenly in the pan.

 Baked and out of the pan.  And of course you have to taste test it!

Pound Cake

1 3/4 cups of flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup of butter (2 sticks), softened at room temperature

1 1/3 cups of sugar

1/4 cup of honey

5 eggs, at room temperature

1 Tablespoon of lemon zest

2 teaspoons of vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Spray baking pan with Bakers Joy or grease and flour your pan.  If using a loaf pan make sure it is a 6 cup or bigger, or just use a tube pan.

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt and set aside.

Beat the butter, sugar and honey in a mixing bowl on high speed until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then add the lemon zest, then the vanilla.  Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter/egg mixture beating after each addition.

Spread the batter, it will be thick, into the prepared pan and bake for about 1 hour or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool for at least 15 minutes before turning out of the pan, then turn out onto a cooling rack.  Leave it plain, frost with your favorite flavor frosting or dust with powdered sugar.