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