Easy Strawberry Trifle with Pound Cake

The sweet strawberries, creamy pudding and pound cake really come together and scream deliciousness in this super easy strawberry trifle with pound cake recipe.  This strawberry dessert will be a complete hit with all your guests!

Easy Strawberry Trifle with Pound Cake Recipe:

Don’t you just love strawberry season?

I’ve written about it a few times before, but we have a fantastic little strawberry farm about 30 minutes down the road. I’ve taken the kids there every year since my youngest was 2. (I have some of the cutest pictures of them in the strawberries.) 

In the last few years we’ve timed our visit so we were able to pick strawberries, blackberries, potatoes and a couple of times, even peaches.

We plan to hit the farm up for strawberries and blackberries this coming Friday since will be out of school. (No peaches this year, we had a late March freeze that froze all the blooms.)

So in the meantime, I’ve been having to make my strawberry recipes with just regular ol’ grocery store strawberries.  (Poor me, lol.)

The Best Dessert Recipe for Fresh Strawberries:

Today I want to share a favorite dessert recipe for fresh strawberries: this easy Strawberry Trifle with Pound Cake Recipe.  (And yes, at one point, I totally had to google whether trifle was pronounced with a short I or long I, lol.  Listen how to pronounce trifle here.)

Is strawberry trifle made with angel food cake or pound cake?

Traditionally, trifles are made with a type of sponge cake and soaked with sherry.  There are plenty of easy trifle recipes out on the web. Some use angel food cake and others use pound cake. (Angel food cake is similar to sponge cake, but without egg yolks and pound cake is a sponge cake with butter.)

In my opinion, and the reason I use pound cake in this recipe, is that the pound cake holds up better and helps the trifle last longer in the fridge.  Pound cake also just tastes better -rich, buttery – yum! (After all, pound cake gets its name from the pound of butter used in the original recipe.

How many layers does a trifle have?

This strawberry trifle recipe has 3 layers of 3 ingredients, so 9 layers total. (Pound cake layer, pudding layer, fruit layer, then repeat the layers 2 more times.)  The good news is, trifle recipes are super flexible.

Depending on the serving dish, you could do one set of three layers (like a banana pudding would be) or 2 sets of three, 3 sets of three, etc.  Whatever works for you.  The taste will be the same, but the presentation will look different.

What is the Best Dish to Serve a Trifle In?

Believe it or not, the dish I used in these photos is called a Trifle Bowl. A trifle bowl is made of clear glass and usually has straight sides and a flat-ish bottom to show off the layers of your recipe.

I am pretty sure I purchased my trifle bowl from a Walmart store.  In case you are wondering, the bowl I used is 8 inches in diameter and 5 inches deep.  Here is a similar trifle bowl on amazon.  (I also have the mini trifle bowls, I love them, but I didn’t have enough to do this recipe in. I mainly use those small trifle bowls when making pudding – everybody gets an equal serving.)

What’s the secret to making the best trifle?

The secret to why this trifle recipe is so yummy is I use macerated strawberries, which makes the strawberries even yummier. By adding sugar to fresh strawberries, the sugar pulls the liquid out of the strawberries and makes a strawberry sugar syrup. You then will pour the strawberry syrup over the pound cake layers. The pound cake absorbs all that yummy strawberry sweetness for an even better flavor!

Ingredients in Strawberry Trifle:

If you’re heading to the store, these are the ingredients to add to your list:

• 2 lbs container of Strawberries
• sugar
• large box of instant vanilla pudding (the one with 6 servings,) plus the ingredients to make it
• tub of cool whip
• 16 oz pound cake

How to make this Easy Strawberry Trifle:

You’ll love how easy this is to make!

1. Start with your quartered strawberries and add the sugar to start the macerating process.
2. Slice a store-bought pound cake into cubes.
3. Make the pudding mixture and give the strawberries and pudding about 30 more minutes in the fridge.
4. Put together your layers and Voilà! You’ve made a Strawberry Trifle!

How amazing would it have been if I had added a layer of blueberries to the trifle for a red, white, and blueberry trifle!

Can trifle be made the day before?

Technically, you can make a trifle the day before, but this recipe is at its best between 4 and 24 hours. so plan your preparation accordingly. (This trifle recipe will last 3 to 4 days in the fridge.  It will still taste great, but the older it gets, the looser the trifle becomes as the strawberries begin to soften more. (Sugar is a natural preservative and by macerating the strawberries, it not only intensifies the flavors of the berry, but it also helps extend the life of the berries.)

How good does that look?  The sweet strawberries, creamy pudding, and pound cake really come together and scream deliciousness in this super easy strawberry trifle recipe.  They say a photo can speak 1000 words, and I just don’t think I can say more than the photo below does, lol.  You have to make this trifle recipe at your very next opportunity.

Still have strawberry leftovers?  Here are a bunch more strawberry dessert recipes using fresh strawberries that you might also like to try:

• Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream
• Baked Mini Strawberry Pies
• Strawberry Lemonade Slushies
• Summer Berry Frozen Yogurt Bars
• Quick and Easy Strawberry Jam Recipe
• No Bake Mini Strawberry Cheesecake Bites

Tried This Strawberry Trifle Recipe?

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Easy Strawberry Trifle with Pound Cake

★★★★★ 5 from 25 reviews

• Author: Jamie Sanders
• Prep Time: 35 minutes
• Total Time: 35 minutes plus time in fridge
• Yield: 12 servings

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Description

The sweet strawberries, creamy pudding and pound cake really come together and scream deliciousness in this super easy strawberry trifle recipe.  This strawberry dessert will be a complete hit with all your guests!

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Ingredients

• 32 oz (2 lbs container) fresh strawberries
• 16 oz container pound cake, cubed
• Package of instant vanilla pudding (the one with 6 servings)
• 3 cups milk (for the pudding)
• 8 oz tub of Cool Whip
• 1/2 cup sugar

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Instructions

1. Add the sugar to the strawberries and toss to coat.  Set aside in the fridge for 30 minutes, tossing at least once or twice more..
2. Prepare the pudding as directed. Gently fold in Cool Whip.  Set aside in the fridge, til needed.
3. After the strawberries have sat with the sugar for at least 30 minutes, strain the strawberry sugar syrup into a container with a pourable lip.  (That way you won’t waste any of that sweet strawberry syrup.)
4. Layer your ingredients into the trifle bowl in this order: 1/3 pound cake, then pour 1/3 of strawberry syrup over the pound cake, 1/3 of pudding mixture and then 2/5 of strawberries.  Repeat these layers twice more, the final layer of strawberries should be slightly less.  (1/5 verses the 2/5 used in earlier layers)
5. Refrigerate strawberry trifle for at least 2 hours before serving. Enjoy!

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Notes

Nutrition calculated with original cool whip, non-sugar-free pudding, and 2% milk. I have used sugar-free pudding and cool whip light and the strawberry trifle is just as good.

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Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1/12 of recipe
• Calories: 200
• Fat: 5
• Carbohydrates: 39
• Fiber: 2
• Protein: 3

Keywords: strawberry trifle, strawberry dessers