Red, White, & Blue Trifle

This patriotic Red, White, and Blue Trifle has layers of fresh berries, moist red velvet cake, and creamy cheesecake pudding. Top it off with a couple dollops of whipped topping and cute little cake stars for the ultimate fresh summer dessert.

Are you a fan of delicious desserts to please a crowd? If you are like us, then you are going to love our Cherry Cheesecake Dump Cake or Watergate Cake. Try out this Triple Berry Crisp, that is one of our go to summer favorites.

Patriotic Berry Trifle

This red, white and blue trifle is the perfect summer dessert to share with your guests. The strawberries and blueberries not only add to the Independence Day theme of the trifle, they also add a nice lightness when paired with the red velvet cake. This star topped trifle or this firecracker cake would be perfect for Memorial Day or the 4th of July.

This dessert is made even more simple by making most of it yourself and kind of cheating for the other half. The red velvet cake is completely made from scratch, but the pudding is made from a box mix and the frozen whipped topping is from a tub.

Perfect for Memorial Day or 4th of July

Of course, you could go ALL OUT and make the pudding and the whipped topping yourself. Or if you have even less time, go the opposite route and go buy a pre-made red velvet cake or just make it from a box mix.

This red velvet cake is homemade so it has a little special touch to it. This red velvet cake recipe is super light and airy, but also moist. This red velvet dessert is so great for the 4th of July but, it can be make anytime of the year. Easy trifle recipes are the best, especially on holidays.

Another fun and quick treat to make are these red, white, and blue pretzels. If you have a little more time on your hands make this red, white, and blue pretzel salad, it is gorgeous and tasty.

Red Velvet Trifle Ingredients

• Sugar: Granulated white sugar.
• Butter: Unsalted butter at room temperature.
• Flour: Use all purpose flour.
• Cocoa Powder: Unsweetened cocoa powder.
• Baking Soda: Make sure your baking soda is fresh.
• Salt: I like to use fine sea salt or kosher.
• Buttermilk: Make sure to use buttermilk or one of the substitutes that are listed above. Buttermilk needs to be at room temperature.
• Eggs: Use fresh, room temperature eggs.
• Vinegar: White distilled vinegar.
• Gel Food Coloring: I like to use the “red no flavor” gel.
• Instant Pudding: You can use cheesecake or white chocolate instant pudding.
• Milk: You can use non-fat, low-fat, or whole milk.
• Fruit: I used strawberries and blueberries. Cut the strawberries into slices. You could also use blackberries or raspberries.
• Frozen Whipped Topping: Make sure to thaw it out. The topping is optional for the top of the trifle.

How to Make a Trifle

1. Prepare pans. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Butter and flour two 8″ square pans or two 9″ round cake pans. Add in a parchment paper sling and butter it.
2. Mix dry ingredients. In a medium sized bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa, salt and baking soda. Set aside.
3. Cream butter. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
4. Mix wet ingredients. Mix in eggs one at a time. Add in buttermilk, vanilla extract and red food gel. Mix until combined.
5. Bake cake. Pour into two pans. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few crumbs.
6. Make pudding. While cake is cooling, whisk together both boxes of instant pudding with 4 cups of cold milk. Place in the refrigerator for at least 5 minutes.
7. Cut shapes. Once cake is cool, cut out your star shapes (using directions below) and cut the rest of the cake into cubes.
8. Layer into trifle dish. Begin layering ingredients in a trifle bowl, regular bowl, or in cups. 
9. Add on topping. Start with adding in half of the cake cubes, then gently add on half of the pudding, half of the cut strawberries, and half of the blueberries. Top with swirls of whipped topping and cake stars.

How to Cut Cake into Stars

1. You will need a 1- 1 1/2-inch star-shaped cookie cutter.
2. Cut one strip of cake (making sure it’s wide enough for your star cookie cutter). Cut the strip in half to make two thin strips.
3. Using the cookie cutter, press it into the flat strip. Remove the star from the cutter and set aside. Repeat through the rest of the cake strips. You should be able to get about 8-10 stars, but I only used 5 for the top of my trifle.

Red Velvet Trifle Recipe Tips and Variations

• Using real whipped cream. If you have the time, you could whip up some real whipped cream or use the stuff from the can for the top of the trifle instead of frozen whipped topping. I like the stability of the pre-made frozen whipped topping, that’s why I used it in this recipe.
• Leave it as just berries. You could leave the top of this trifle as just a layer of berries if you like. I only added dollops of whipped topping on top, you could omit it completely or top each serving with it instead. Of course, you will need them if you want to add on the cute cake stars.
• Super short on time? If you are short on time, instead of making the red velvet cake from scratch, you can buy a pre-made cake or make a boxed mix. This would be so much quicker, but I wanted to add an element of homemade to this trifle.
• White chocolate pudding. If you like, you can use white chocolate pudding instead of cheesecake pudding to make a white chocolate trifle.
• Room temperature ingredients. Make sure the ingredients you are using like the buttermilk, eggs, and butter are all at room temperature.
• Use different cookie cutters. Make different shapes other than stars for the top of the trifle.

Trifle Storage Instructions

• How to Refrigerate: Store the trifle in a glass container or BPA-free airtight plastic container. It should last about 5 days in the fridge.
• Can trifle be frozen: So the whole assembled trifle cannot be frozen, but the red velvet cake can be. Store cake by putting it into an airtight glass, BPA-free freezer-safe bag or freezer-safe plastic container. Make sure to label the cake with the recipe name and date. It should last about 3 months in the freezer.
• How to Thaw: Thaw the frozen cake in the refrigerator overnight.

Try these other summer favorites!

• Blackberry Iced Tea
• Spicy Grilled Shrimp
• Grilled Artichokes
• Mexican Street Corn
• Chocolate Raspberry Cake

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