Chocolate Chip Strawberry Trifle

Look no further: this chocolate chip strawberry trifle is the best strawberry trifle! Chocolate chip pound cake, hot fudge frosting, homemade pudding, and fresh strawberries.  This is summer dessert perfection!

Chocolate Chip Strawberry Trifle: chocolate chip pound cake, hot fudge frosting, homemade pudding, and fresh strawberries make THE BEST strawberry trifle. This is summer dessert perfection! {Bunsen Burner Bakery}

Last week, I shared a recipe for chocolate chip pound cake with hot fudge frosting.  It’s so good, I’ve made it four times in the past two months, which is saying a lot for a pound cake.  Once carved into a double decker bus cake, once as a sheet cake, and now twice for this Chocolate Chip Strawberry Trifle.

My dog is actually the one to thank for this trifle.  The day before she ate half a lemon lavender bundt cake, she knocked one of my photography lights into the freshly-baked chocolate chip pound cake.  Unable to serve it as is, I cut the pound cake into cubes and stashed them away in the freezer.

Chocolate Chip Strawberry Trifle: chocolate chip pound cake, hot fudge frosting, homemade pudding, and fresh strawberries make THE BEST strawberry trifle. This is summer dessert perfection! {Bunsen Burner Bakery}

A few weeks later we were invited to a Mother’s Day gathering with family friends.  My husband remembered the bag of chocolate chip pound cake in the freezer and suggested I use it to make a trifle.

And thus, chocolate chip strawberry trifle was born.

Chocolate Chip Strawberry Trifle: chocolate chip pound cake, hot fudge frosting, homemade pudding, and fresh strawberries make THE BEST strawberry trifle. This is summer dessert perfection! {Bunsen Burner Bakery}

Step aside, angel food cake strawberry shortcake trifles.  THIS is where it’s at.

Dense, buttery chocolate chip pound cake.  That decadent hot fudge frosting.  Fresh summer strawberries (because I’d like alltheberries this time of year, please and thank you).  Super simple homemade vanilla pudding with some homemade whipped cream folded in.

Chocolate Chip Strawberry Trifle: chocolate chip pound cake, hot fudge frosting, homemade pudding, and fresh strawberries make THE BEST strawberry trifle. This is summer dessert perfection! {Bunsen Burner Bakery}

Other reasons this strawberry trifle is A++: you can make the pound cake ahead of time.  Make it whenever you have some spare time and stash it in the freezer.  Pull it out whenever you need a quick and easy dessert.  Boom.  I love easy make ahead desserts for unexpected last minute entertaining.

Also bonus: the trifle will only use about 3/4 of the chocolate chip pound cake.  So you have an extra quarter of a cake, which means you get to sneak a piece now and then out of your freezer bag.  You’re welcome. 

Chocolate Chip Strawberry Trifle: chocolate chip pound cake, hot fudge frosting, homemade pudding, and fresh strawberries make THE BEST strawberry trifle. This is summer dessert perfection! {Bunsen Burner Bakery}

Don’t let the long ingredient list throw you: this comes together in a snap.  Make the chocolate chip pound cake ahead of time and top with the hot fudge frosting.   The homemade vanilla pudding is the easiest pudding recipe you’ll ever make (no egg yolks involved!).  You can whip up (ha) the whipped cream in 2 minutes.  Then layer away.

This chocolate chip strawberry trifle?  I’m officially calling it the Dessert of Summer.  Today is the summer solstice, i.e., the first real day of summer, and I’m already calling it.  No summery dessert I make over the next few months will top this.

Chocolate Chip Strawberry Trifle: chocolate chip pound cake, hot fudge frosting, homemade pudding, and fresh strawberries make THE BEST strawberry trifle. This is summer dessert perfection! {Bunsen Burner Bakery}

Just ask any of my neighbors, and they’ll agree.  I brought it to a neighborhood picnic in the park and it was devoured.  Al fresco dining in the grass.  Kids kicking balls and riding scooters.  Friendly chatter with neighbors. Popping corks of bubbly rosé.  And a chocolate chip strawberry trifle.  Perfection.

Chocolate Chip Strawberry Trifle

Chocolate chip pound cake, hot fudge frosting, homemade pudding, and fresh strawberries.  This is summer dessert perfection!

Ingredients:

For the Chocolate Chip Pound Cake:
  • 16 tablespoons (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla bean paste (Amazon affiliate link) or vanilla extract
  • 7 eggs, room temperature
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1 cup sour cream
  • 1 1/2 cups miniature chocolate chips
For the Hot Fudge Frosting:
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 6 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 4 cups confectioners sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Custard Layer:
  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 3/4 cup sugar, divided
  • 3 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 2 cups heavy whipping cream
For Assembly:
  • 1 pint fresh strawberries, halved

 

Directions:

  1. Prepare the chocolate chip pound cake with hot fudge frosting according to directions in linked post.  Allow cake to fully cool before cutting into 1-inch cubes.  Cake cubes can be frozen in a freezer bag or used immediately.
  2. While pound cake is cooling (or thawing), prepare the custard layer.  Combine the milk, 1/2 cup sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan.  Whisk thoroughly until no lumps of cornstarch remain.  Slowly heat the milk mixture over medium heat, stirring, until the mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.  Remove from heat, whisk in the vanilla extract and butter, and chill for 1 hour.
  3. While the custard is chilling, beat the heavy whipping cream and remaining 1/4 cup sugar with the whisk attachment for a stand mixer or immersion blender.  Beat until the whipped cream forms medium-stiff peaks.  Once custard is cool, use a spatula to gently fold the whipped cream into the custard.
  4. To assemble the trifle, start with a layer of chocolate chip pound cake cubes in the bottom of a trifle or large glass bowl.  Use your hand to flatten the cake into an even layer (small gaps between pieces are fine).  Spread 1/3 of the custard/whipped cream mixture along the top of the pound cake, followed by half of the strawberries.  Repeat these layers again, ending with the final third of the custard mixture.  Top with any remaining strawberries.

Trifle is prettiest when consumed within a few hours of assembling, but tastiest when made the night before and allowed to sit overnight in the refrigerator.  Keep trifle cold before serving.

A Bunsen Burner Bakery Original Protocol

Chocolate Chip Strawberry Trifle: chocolate chip pound cake, hot fudge frosting, homemade pudding, and fresh strawberries make THE BEST strawberry trifle. This is summer dessert perfection! {Bunsen Burner Bakery} #dessert #trifle #poundcake #strawberryshortcake #strawberries