Patriotic Berry Trifle

by Sunny Anderson

1/4 cup plus 2/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup Limoncello or fresh lemon juice

1/4 tsp. almond extract

1 premade angel food cake, cut into 1-inch slices

1 pound cream cheese, at room temperature

2 cups heavy cream, at room temperature

2 pints blueberries

2 pints strawberries, hulled and sliced

Heat 1/4 cup sugar, the Limencello or lemon juice and 1/4 cup water in a saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves.  Remove from the heat and stir in the almond extract (sorry, I completely forgot to take a picture of this part).

Brush both sides of each slice of cake with the syrup.  Cut the slices into 1-inch cubes.

Beat the remaining 2/3 cup sugar and the cream cheese with a mixer on medium-speed until smooth and light.  Add the cream and beat on medium-high speed until smooth and the consistency of whipped cream.

Arrange half of the cake cubes in the bottom of a 13-cup trifle dish.

Sprinkle evenly with a layer of blueberries.

Dollop* half of the cream mixture over the blueberries and gently spread.

Top with a layer of strawberries

Layer the remaining cake cubes on top of the strawberries, then sprinkle with more blueberries.

Top with remaining cream mixture.  Finish with the remaining strawberries and blueberries, arranging them in a decorative pattern.  Cover and refrigerate 1 hour.

I looked on the FOODTV website for a patriotic dessert and this was the first picture that popped up.  I was so thrilled as I didn't have to spend hours looking for that perfect recipe as it seems I sometimes do.  Not only did it look delicious and pretty but it was also so simple.  Sunny did not add the Limoncello, instead I did.  I used the Limoncello for another trifle I made a couple of months ago, I figured that it wouldn't hurt to use it for this one and it came out perfect!  *I don't understand why she said to have the heavy cream at room temperature.  I have always learned that the cream needed to be well chilled in order for it to turn into whipping cream.  I was very reluctant but I followed the recipe hoping it would turn out perfect.......well it didnt'!  Just as I thought.  I think I had it mixing in my mixer for at least 10 minutes and it never "peaked".  I even at cream of tartar, it may have helped a teensy bit but still not enough, my whipping cream was lame and liquidy.  I was so upset but I had no choice and had to use it the way it was.  When it was time for dessert, it had set and thickened a little bit while in the refrigerator but overall, the flavors were perfect.  It's a great tasting dessert and hours later when hubby and I had another serving, the cream had thickened even more.  The angel cake had also soaked up the berry juices and the Limoncello syrup, MERCY!!!  Mmmm,  I LOVE SUMMER TIME!!!!

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Very Berry Italian Trifle 2

1/ 1/2 - 2 qt. trifle dish or bowl
8 trifle sponges or sponge cake, cut into slices
1 cup red currant jelly
8 - 10 Amaretto cookies (the hard version)
1/2 cup Limoncello
juice of half a lemon
12 oz. blackberries
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups Mascarpone cheese

Spread 1/4 of the jelly at the bottom of 4 sponge cakes.  Place at the bottom of the dish, jelly side up.

Take the other sponge cakes and place on top of the ones in the dish....

Take the Amaretto cookies and crush them in a food processor.

....like this.

Sprinkle evenly over the sponge cakes, reserving enough to sprinkle at the end - maybe 1/4 cup.

Take 1/4 of the Limencello

.....and pour over the sprinkled sponges.  Set aside.

Put the remaining jelly and the lemon juice in a medium saucepan...

....stir until melted.

Add the berries (reserve 6 for later) into the jelly mixture, turn up the heat, gently stir until the start running.

like so and watch how the berries turn a beautiful dark pink color

Pour the berries and it's juices into the bowl of sponges.  Try coating all the sponges - i tried, i really did :)

This is what it should look like so far.  Set aside.

With a handheld mixer, mix the sugar and the egg yolks until you have a thick smooth yellow paste.  Well, this step didn't work for me.  As soon as I put the mixer in, egg yolk and sugar went flying all over the place.  I continued to use it, just worked it very carefully but I could never get it into a paste no matter how hard I tried, I'm not sure why so I continued onto the next step.

Add the rest of the Limoncello and mix until the mixture resembles a light mousse.

Mix in the Mascarpone cheese until everything is smoothly combined,

like this.

Put the egg whites in a mixing bowl and whisk until firm.

Gently fold the egg whites into the egg mixture.

like this - I can eat this just the way it is - mmmm, so good!

Pour the mixture on top of the berries in the bowl.

Cover with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator for 4 hours or overnight.

Before serving, decorate topping with reserved crushed Amaretto cookies and berries. This was our Easter dessert

Need I say more?

I found this recipe in La Bella Vita's blog.  I immediately fell in love just by the picture she posted.  I posted this recipe back in March but didn't have enough step by step pictures since I wasn't the one who prepared it.  Elise did and she's still learning to juggle the camera and cooking at the same time.  We also made our own sweet lemon juice that last time since we didn't have any Limoncello and what a difference!!!!  You must have Limoncello to make this recipe - no ifs, ands or buts about it.  This dessert will be a longtime favorite in the years, decades to come.  ~isavortheweekend

Very Berry Italian Trifle

8 trifle sponges or a sponge cake, cut into slices
1 cup red currant jelly
8 - 10 Amaretto cookies (the hard version)
1/2 cup Limoncello
juice of half a lemon
12 oz. blackberries
2 eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups Mascarpone cheese

Split the trifle sponges and make little sandwiches of them by spreading 1/4th of the jelly in each, then place them into the base of your glass bowl.

Grind up the Amaretto cookies in a food processor.  Sprinkle most of these evenly over the sponges and reserve some crumbs for sprinkling over the top at the end.  Pour half of the Limoncello over these.

Put the remaining jelly into a wide saucepan with the lemon juice and melt over a low heat. Add the blackberries and turn up the heat for a minute or so just until the juices start running. Pour berry mixture over the sponge sandwiches to cover and let sit while you complete the rest of the recipe.

.With a hand-held electric mixer, mix the egg yolks with the sugar until you have a thick smooth yellow paste.  Add in the remaining Limoncello and continue mixing until you have a light mousse mixture. Mix in the Mascarpone cheese until everything is smoothly combined.

Finally, in another bowl, whisk the egg whites until firm.  Fold these into the lemony, egg-y Mascarpone mixture.  Spread this gently over the blackberries in the glass bowl.  .Cover the assembled trifle with plastic cling wrap and leave in the fridge for the flavors and textures to steep and meld for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours. Take the trifle out of the fridge for about 40 minutes to an hour before it’s needed to get to a cool room temperature.  Sprinkle remaining amaretto cookie crumbs on top

I found this recipe from a new favorite blog chef named, La Bella Vita.  There's just something about cake smothered in berry juices and who knows what else but the picture she posted, sold me right off the bat.  Here it is:

See what I mean?

I thought about possibly making this for company that we're having at the end of the month so I had Elise make it this week just to see if it was good enough ;)  Well hands down, it's fantastic!  The only thing we substituted was the Limoncello as we didn't have any and never got around to buying some.  I did some research and I could of used lemon syrup just as well but I couldn't find that either while at the store.  I decided to make my own and even though Elise didn't think it worked, I don't want to say it didn't work but I'm sure having a strong sweet lemony flavor would have made this dessert so much better if that's even possible.  I've never had Marscapone Cheese before (at least I don't think so) but I'm really liking it.  It's got a creamy, sweet cream cheese taste to it but much better tasting.  It tasted so much better the 2nd day as the cake had more time to soak up all the juicy juices.  Don and Grandma absolutely loved it.  My only regret is I really want to taste it either with the Limoncello or lemon syrup.  ~isavortheweekend