Holiday sweets are all about excess. Think colored sugar on top of already sweet sugar cookies, thick buttercreams frosting buche de noels, rich egg nog … there’s nothing light about Christmas. And while I’m a huge fan of dessert in most incarnations, I appreciate the less sweet side of things, especially on a day when sugar is consumed with jaw-dropping rapidity.
For as long as I can remember, we’ve had trifles on Christmas. The layered dessert always makes for excellent presentation, and because the different components can be made in advance and then assembled a few hours before guests arrive, it was always a convenient option for our family’s yearly Christmas dinner.
My mom usually went the semi-homemade route, as she had you know, an entire meal for 30 to take care of. Boxed yellow cake mix formed the base, instant vanilla pudding the custard, the fruit layer consisted of fruit cups and Cool Whip formed the whipped cream topping. It was delicious, and disappeared every time.
But this year, she handed over dessert duty to my sister and I. Along with the sugar cookies (and my favorite cookie ever, the recipe to come soon!), I made this dark chocolate raspberry trifle. While I understand the appeal of semi-homemade for a busy cook, I decided my version had to be totally homemade. The recipe, which is more like a collection of recipes for the different components, is extremely manageable if you plan ahead — the cake, pudding and whipped cream can all be made at least a day in advance, and the trifle should be assembled at least four hours before serving, so that everything has time to meld together.
And the results are show-stopping. It’s a grown-up trifle, slightly sweet from the milk chocolate pudding and the barely sweetened whipped cream, tart from the raspberries, subtly rich from the moist dark chocolate cake. It’s light on sugar, with less than 2 cups in the entire shebang. You could make it more grown-up by dousing the cake with Chambord or another type of raspberry liquer, but since we had small children at our party, I skipped this and didn’t miss the booze one bit. Now that‘s saying something.
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To make the recipe more manageable, bake the cake and make the pudding 1-2 days in advance. Whip the cream and assemble the trifle a few hours before serving.
Ingredients
For the cake
- 1–1/2 cups sugar
- 1–1/3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup strong brewed coffee
- 3/4 cup buttermilk (or put 1 tablespoon of lemon juice in a measuring cup, fill it to the 1-cup mark with whole milk and let it sit for 10 minutes)
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the chocolate pudding
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
- a pinch of salt
- 1–1/2 cups whole milk*
- 1/2 cup heavy cream*
- 4 ounces good-quality milk chocolate, chopped (I used Ghirardelli chips)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the whipped cream
- 1 pint heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon sugar
To assemble the trifle
- 12-ounce bag frozen raspberries, set out for a half hour so that they are slightly thawed
- 1 pint fresh raspberries (optional)
Instructions
For the cake
- In a large bowl, sift together the first 6 ingredients. Add the coffee, buttermilk, eggs, oil and vanilla and mix until just combined.
- Transfer the batter to a parchment-lined baking pan (I did not do this, as evidenced by the above picture).
- Bake at 325˚F for 25-30 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Let cool for 10 minutes, then flip the cake out onto a wire rack. Let cool completely before assembling the trifle.
For the chocolate pudding
- Whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder and salt in a large saucepan. Gradually whisk in milk and cream.
- Bring to a boil over moderate heat, whisking constantly. Boil until mixture thickens, about 2 minutes — it will get thick very quickly.
- Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate and vanilla quickly. Continue whisking until smooth.
- Transfer to a bowl and chill, placing a piece of plastic wrap directly on the pudding to prevent a skin from forming (unless you like pudding skin, then just wrap the bowl itself). Chill until cold, at least 2 hours.
For the whipped cream
- Chill a large metal bowl and the beaters from an electric mixer in the freezer for 20 minutes.
- Pour the whipping cream, vanilla and salt in the cold bowl and mix on high speed until firm peaks form.
Assemble the trifle
- Cut the cake into 2-inch pieces. Place in the bottom of a trifle bowl or a large, high-sided clear glass bowl, leaving no space in between. Cut smaller slices to fill spaces as necessary.
- Top the cake layer with half of the chocolate pudding, spreading it into any spaces in the cake layer and smoothing the top so that it is as flat as possible.
- Remove about 30 whole raspberries from the bag of frozen ones (if not using fresh ones). Sprinkle half of the rest of the bag, including the pieces on top of the pudding layer.
- Top the raspberries with a thick layer of whipped cream, smoothing out the berries so that the top of the partially-assembled trifle is flat.
- Repeat the cake, pudding, raspberries and whipped cream layers. Decorate with either the whole frozen raspberries or the fresh ones.
Notes
- Chocolate cake recipe from Bon Appetit; Chocolate Pudding recipe from Gourmet
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 12
perhaps the longest recipe ever…
but soooo yummy!
YUM! I love trifles! This looks amazing. I will be trying this recipe 🙂
I LOVE trifle and this looks wonderful! I think I’m going to have to whip this up for my next tea party! Yum!
This LOOKED like a long recipe, but it was really easy and so delicious! I found it after I had already made a terribly dry chocolate cake and knew I couldn’t serve it by itself. So I made this! I was worried the dry cake would ruin it so I made this sauce (http://allrecipes.com//Recipe/sues-hot-fudge-sauce/Detail.aspx) and spooned it over the cake before adding the pudding. Anyway, sorry for the long comment, but thanks for posting it and I will definitely be using it again (the right way). 🙂
I made the trifle this weekend for a Christmas party and it turned out really really good. It looks great and is just as delicious!! Everyone loved it. I followed the recipe exactly, but the details were a good bonus. Thanks for sharing the recipe!
I’m so glad you liked it! I’m trying to decide what to make for our Christmas party this year, and it’s hard to argue against making this again …
I’d like to make this as do-ahead Christmas dessert but don’t see anything here about how long to leave it to set. I was under the impression that trifles always needed 24 hours in the fridge before serving. What about this one?
Hi Shelly, thanks for your question! You can definitely make the cake and pudding beforehand, but since I didn’t put any stabilizers in the whipped cream, I wouldn’t recommend making that until a few hours before you plan to serve (and therefore waiting to assemble the trifle until then). While I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure, there’s a chance the whipped cream could deflate, which might mess the dessert up. But you can definitely make the components a night or two before, and assemble 4-6 hours before guests arrive!
Could you add a stabilizer like gelatin without adding more sugar?
Hi Steph, thanks for your question! Yes, you can stabilize the whipped cream with gelatin without adding any sugar — here’s my go-to for this process: http://baking.about.com/cs/hintsandtips/ht/stabilizewhip.htm
Looks amazing planning to make it tomorrow, how many will this serve?
Hi George, it definitely feeds a crowd — at least 12-15 people, but likely more!
I’m coming late to this lovely recipe, and am anxious to get it started with the lovely raspberries that one can get this time of year… I’ve tried to find the original chocolate cake recipe to see if this question is answered, but to no avail. I have a hater of coffee flavor in my house, and I’d hate to have him reject the work that goes into this dessert if there is any actual coffee taste to the final product. Does it accentuate the chocolate flavor, or add its own? Many thanks!
Hi Maura, thanks for your question! The coffee mostly just enhances the chocolate flavor — it makes the cake more “chocolate-y,” if that makes sense. But if your family is really opposed to it, you can just swap in 3/4 cup of milk or water instead. Let me know how it goes!
I made this for my daughter’s birthday. Easily the best trifle I’ve ever made, and very possibly the best I’ve ever eaten! Thanks