Holiday Peppermint Bark Trifle

 Alec and I had an idea to make up a special holiday trifle cake for Christmas Eve last year.  Trifle cakes tend to be a bit hit with our family.  We combined chocolate cake with white chocolate peppermint pudding, some cool whip, and peppermint bark for a delicious dessert! 



Ingredients for the Trifle:

1- 11 ounce  package Nestle Tollhouse morsels in white chocolate

1 cup peppermint candy canes or soft peppermints crushed into bite sized or smaller pieces (it's a matter of preference here; I don't like the grittiness of hard candy cane "dust" and prefer the soft peppermints)

Chocolate cake (from a mix is fine; though Alec did make his from scratch!): you need just 1- 8 or 9 inch cake round per trifle so I usually pop the other one in the freezer for another trifle recipe on another day. 

2  packages instant white chocolate pudding + milk needed to make pudding

1- 8 ounce package cool whip; thawed

Directions: We usually make this in 2 days; one day to make the bark and the cake then we set both aside to cool and assemble the next day. 

First step is to make the peppermint bark.  We melted the bag of chocolate chips in the microwave using 30 second intervals and stirring.  When it was all melted, we poured the chocolate onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and spread into a thin layer. Sprinkle HALF of the peppermint pieces along the melted chocolate and let harden.  Then break into pieces like those shown below.

You won't use all these pieces on the cake but we just put the rest out on a cookie platter with some other sweet treats and watched it all disappear. 


Second step is to make the cake. Mix up a batch of your favorite chocolate cake mix following the recipe on the box or your favorite chocolate cake recipe and set both rounds aside to cool completely.  You do not want warm cake melting the pudding or the cool whip! 


Step 3 is to make the pudding.  Following the directions on the box for soft set pudding we mixed up both boxes together in the bowl of our stand mixer.


Once the pudding was soft set we added in the remaining 1/2 cup of peppermint and folded the candy pieces in throughout the pudding. 



Then in our trifle bowl we crumbled a layer of chocolate cake using approximately 1/2 of 1 cake round.  Then we layered 1/2 the pudding mixture and topped it with 1/2 the Cool Whip.  We repeated all 3 layers and finished off the cake with a few pieces of the peppermint bark.





It was delicious!!  

Linking up with: Spread the Kindness,





Comments

  1. Oh my goodness this looks and sounds absolutely delicious. The peppermint bark just takes it up to next level amazing!
    ruth@playworkeatrepeat

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  2. Creative! How cool that you guys came up with this on your own. Peppermint is something that never sounds that good to me. For example, I would never go out of my way to obtain some. But whenever I have a dessert with it, I almost always really like it.

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    Replies
    1. I really only like peppermint at Christmas and prefer it mixed with chocolate of some sort! LOL. This was a yummy dessert though.

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  3. Peppermint heaven in a bowl right there! I love a good trifle and this looks amazing!

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  4. This look amazing. Now there's something I haven't had in ages!!
    OXOX
    Jodie

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! We used to make trifles all the time and then sort of got away from them... but after having this one last Christmas my boys have requested them a few more times.

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  5. A trifle cake? Oh wow, I haven't seen one of those before. For me a trifle is jelly, then custard, then cream. I love the idea of having cake in it. This looks and sounds amazing. x

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    1. Yep, our trifles almost always have cake or brownies in them mixed with a layer of pudding, a layer of cream and some sort of candy.

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  6. Joanne your trifle looks so delicious! The first time I tried to make a gluten free cake for a guest who needed to eat gluten free holiday it came out a disaster. My daughter suggested I use it in a trifle, layered with chocolate pudding and whip cream. It turned out to be a big hit! Everyone loved it! I love your idea of making a white chocolate peppermint bark to top it with --that makes it very special! Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you! I find any cake that is a flop works well in a trifle!

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  7. That looks so delicious. I am certainly going to make it this month, and I get to use my trifle bowl again. Thanks a million, Joanne!

    -Soma

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    1. I know what you mean! I so rarely get to use my trifle bowl anymore.

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  8. Oh, Joanne! I think that trifle just screams the holidays!! Thanks so much for sharing your recipe!

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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  9. What a great dessert for the holidays, Joanne, and perfect for a crowd. You and Alec are a wonderful team. I love the peppermint bark decorating the top of the trifle!

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  10. I made this one year. Oh my goodness...so good!

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  11. This looks so amazingly rich and delicious!! I'd be honored if you shared it (and more of your recipes) at our What's for Dinner party!!

    https://lazygastronome.com/whats-for-dinner-sunday-link-up-398/

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    1. Definitely! I'm sorry I always forget since I don't blog on the weekends.

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  12. Oh my! This looks amazing! Peppermint is one of my weaknesses!

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    Replies
    1. This year Alec told me he's making some sort of peppermint cheesecake tartlets; I can't wait!

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