Mixed Berry Trifle

Obviously I've been spending a lot of time at the Betty Crocker recipe site lately, because today's inspiration yet again comes from that site. That Betty sure does know her stuff!

This recipe caught my eye because 1) it looked very pretty, 2) I was pretty sure that it would taste great, and 3) it looked like a great summer dessert. Here is the original recipe:

1 box Betty Crocker® SuperMoist® white cake mix
1 1/4 cups water
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3 egg whites
1 pint (2 cups) blueberries
1 pint (2 cups) raspberries1pintnt (2 cups) strawberries, halved
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup raspberry-flavored liqueur or cranberry-raspberry juice
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1 . Heat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom only of 13x9-inch pan with shortening. Make cake mix as directed on box using water, oil and egg whites. Pour into pan.

2 . Bake 28 to 33 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Run knife around sides of pan to loosen cake. Cool completely, about 1 hour.

3 . While cake is cooling, in medium bowl, gently mix berries, granulated sugar and raspberry liqueur.

4 . In chilled large bowl, beat whipping cream and powdered sugar with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form.

5 . Cut or tear cake into 1-inch pieces. In 3-quart glass trifle bowl, arrange half of the pieces. Spoon half of the berry mixture over cake; top with half of the whipped cream. Repeat layers. Cover; refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. Garnish with additional berries if desired.

I decided to make up my own version using angel food cake and other reduced calorie items. Now here is my recipe:

I call it a mixed berry trifle because, unfortunately, I could not find araspberriesies. You can use any mixtures of berries you want, or you could even just go with a single type of berry.

Mixed Berry Trifle (8 servings at 4 points a piece)

1 pre-made angel food cake
1 tub fat free cool whip
2 cups blueberries
2 cups strawberries
1/3 cup splenda
1/4 diet cranberry apple juice

Mix the berries, splenda, and juice in a small bowl. Chop up angel food cake into bite size pieces. Place half of the cake on the bottom of a serving dish. Place half of the berry mix on top of the angel food cake. Spread half of the cool whon toptop of the berries. Now spread the other half of the cake on top of the cool whip. Then place the remaining mixture of berries on top of the cake. Finally spread the remainder of the cool whip on top of the berries.

I let this chill in the fridge for about a half an hour. The husband couldn't take it anymore and finally dug in :) Overall I thought this was a great dish. The berries had a really nice, slightly sweet flavor to them. My houseguest at the moment said this looked like a Fourth of July dessert. I absolutely agree and I think I'm going to fix this again on the Fourth.

I don't have one of those fancy shmancy trifle bowls, but my dish worked just fine. I would recommend something clear so you can see all of those pretty colors and layers.