Thursday, November 15, 2012

Lemon Trifle!


 I had a lemon urge this past weekend.
Probably because I was harboring a plague and lemon was about the only thing I could taste.
And my throat was sore.
And I was WHINING a lot.

So I decided to make lemon trifle....

Easy lemon trifle (but not Missy-easy, I did not use some packet of nonsense for my lemon pie filling. Oh, please, don't do that!!!!  In the name of all that's righteous and holy, take
ten stinkin' minutes and make this lemony goodness, because the only other thing you're going to have to do is beat some whipping cream, add some sugar to it, and break up store-bought angel food cake.)

I mean, really? Could this get easier? And NO CHEMICAL AFTERTASTE!!! (as much as we LOVE that in Slurpees, it doesn't belong in our trifle. Okay?)



Ingredients:

Mix together in 3 quart saucepan:

1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup corn starch (plus one tablespoon)

Add 1 3/4 cups of water. Whisk well.

In a sturdy 2-3 quart bowl (medium size) separate three eggs. Put yolks in the bowl, put the whites in another container... More on them later. Whisk egg yolks until blended...

Cook water/sugar/cornstarch mix over medium heat, stirring constantly until thick and bubbly. Stir, bubbling, for one minute. (Make this two minutes if you double the recipe, okay? ) Then slowly drizzle the hot mixture into the bowl of egg yolks while whisking them lightly. I just do a slo-o-o-w drizzle (we don't want scrambled eggs in the pudding, really distasteful and totally the wrong texture) and when I've incorporated at least half of the thickened mixture into the egg yolk bowl, I dump the egg yolks back into the pan and whisk the whole thing together. Return to heat, and heat to boiling just like you did before, stirring all the while.

Remove from heat.

Add:

1/2 cup lemon juice
3 Tablespoons butter

Mix well. Refrigerate. DONE... and no one died, right???? Suhweeet!

Once cool, you can whip the cream. This one's easy-peasy:

Pour 16 oz. of heavy whipping cream into mixing bowl. Add 1/2 cup sugar. Whip until thick and soft peaks form.


Break up a store-bought angel food cake into bite-sized pieces:


Layer some lemon pudding (now happily chilled) in bowl

Add pieces of cake...

Then more pudding drizzled over top...

Then whipped cream.

Repeat until done with whipped cream as top layer.

Chill, chill, chill!

Usually I make this in a clear glass fancy bowl but no one was coming to see me because I'm diseased and potentially contagious 
and might have it within my power to single-handedly infect most of the Northeast corridor of the continental U. S.

Now there's a power rush for you!  :)

And here is what it looks like on a plate....



24 comments:

  1. OHHHHH, YUM!!!!!!

    Love. All of it. Every little part.

    Not the disease-ridden Ruthy bit. That was scary and made me lose my appetite. But the lemon with cake and fluff bit.

    I love lemon stuff!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Diseased. Yuck. I'm much better long distance right now, LOL!

      Around here they call me "Plague Carrier"... in the nicest possible way, of course!

      Delete
  2. Love the bowl you put it in! I want one ;-)

    Told Donny you did a Lemon Trifle and he was intrigued. He looooves lemon (lemon meringue pie is his favorite pie, and he loves when I make lemon bars), so someday (AKA when I'm rich and famous, LOL) I'll have to make this for him.

    Hmm...wonder if I can pin this to Pinterest...

    GET WELL, Ruthy!!! Plague, be GONE!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mel, this is a cheapie.... If you don't have an angel food cake hanging around, use a cake mix cake. It comes out just as good! Maybe better!.... and the pudding isn't pricey. I promise. I also buy my heavy whipping cream at Sam's Club. That way I get a quart (yes, 32 ounces!) for the cost of a pint in the grocery store. Half the price and it stays fresh for weeks.

      Delete
  3. Ruthy, if I had known you were serving lemon trifle, I would have been at you door with a big pot of tea and one of those masks like Michael Jackson used to wear. Of course, I would have popped a couple Airbornes prior to my arrival. Tea and trifle. Now that'll cure anything.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mindy, I've been sucking tea like an ocean sponge and it's done nothing....

      And coffee tastes terrible. So stinkin' sad! ;) I have to agree, trifle and tea should be the be-all, end-all to everything.

      Lovely trifle, btw!

      Delete
  4. Mmmm, lemon trifle!

    And that yummy lemon pudding can be used for other things, too, right? Like lemon bars or lemon meringue pie?

    Drink your tea, Ruthy, and get rid of that cold! Mine's still hanging on, too. There's nothing like being sick. Hate it.

    By the way, guess what I found at Walmart today? I had to bury it under some magazines until I get my word count in...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Really????? OH, JAN, HAPPY DAY!!!! :) I bought the last two copies of Mary Virginia-Lou-Who's book last night at Walmart.... I was running errands before choir and was so excited to see them there! (Of course, I was actually just making room for MINE!!!!)

      The nice side of being sick though is the lack of company... and I got well into the 40K's this week on my WIP. And I know the scenes upcoming so they just about write themselves, right?

      Hahhahahahahahaha!

      Delete
  5. Gasp! I feel as if I've been slapped!! But I'll forgive you since you're sick.

    ;)

    Yes, you're actually right. I'm sure I would look for an even quicker way to make this from a mix. LOL

    It sounds good. I've never had a trifle that didn't have layers of fruit in it. This is more like a banana pudding, without the bananas. And with angel food cake instead of vanilla wafers. I'll have to try it!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Missy, that's it exactly. (except for the slapping you part!) What I don't like about the banana pudding thing is how the cookies get soggy. I hate that. Love the flavor, cringe at the consistency.

      With sponge cake (or white or yellow cake) it gets "moist" from the lemon separation, but not weird. Know what I mean?

      Also, we've done raspberry chocolate trifles.... strawberry chocolate trifles.... and I like slightly old (staled) brownies in those. It's amazing how that texture holds up if the brownies are slightly stale when you layer them in. And they give you a nice, chewier texture. Delicious!

      Delete
  6. Oh, and I'm stunned, STUNNED, that you didn't make your own angel food cake from scratch!!! Shame on you!

    hehehe

    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hahahahahahaha! I always buy them. Or use a mix. Isn't that lame of me?

      Delete
  7. Are you less disease riddened this week, Ruthy? I hope so!!!! Being the Irish girl I am, I LOVE trifle but have never varied from the raspberry/spongecake mixture my mum used to make. Making a lemon trifle has put me in a tailspin but I love lemon meringue pie and lemon pudding so I'd likely love this. Might just have to give it a whirl. Feel better soon!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kav, this is wonderful but Mandy and I were discussing it last night and we decided it would do well to have some vanilla pudding or custard spun through the mix, too.

      Gotta try that. If we layer the lemon, then cake, then pudding, then whipped cream and re-do that three times, I think the lemon/vanilla mix would be make-me-grin perfect!

      Although this was delicious, very texture friendly. Smooth, sweet, light. Loved it!

      Delete
  8. Missy, I'm just glad she didn't take a swipe at ME. :D

    Maybe she knows you're woman enough to handle some sick-Ruthy-mean-girl-Iron-chef cracks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. See, this is why old folks are cantankerous. They get grumpy when they don't feel good!!!

      I'm taking surreptitious amoxicillin starting today... just in case it's pneumonia. Because it really should have started getting better by now. (Says Dr. Mom)

      Note the lack of incentive to go to the doctor. I'm such a dork. If the amoxicillin doesn't help.... and I don't die.... and I'm still sick (dagnabbit, not for Thanksgiving, though!!!!) I'll go see the doc. No doctor will ever get rich off of me.

      Which is just plain silly, right?

      Delete
  9. Or maybe she knows sweet Southern girls won't send her a manilla envelope full of kitty roca.

    I'm not above that. Don't think I am.

    ReplyDelete
  10. requires more than one bowl/pan :-( and I agree with Missy -looks like banana pudding without the nanners! I don't think I'd feel like doing all that work when I'm not sick let alone when I AM sick! sheesh last time I was sick with that ear ache I was doing good to make a drive thru - the one before that I did good to get downstairs and get a bottle of water and peanut butter crackers... :-)

    Susanna

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, Susanna, this is the whole motherhood thing again, honey.... no one steps in to be Mom when I'm sick.


      Or babysitter. But my little ones (plague carriers is the current term of affection) are taking good care of me.

      :)

      Is Thanksgiving really six days away? Oy.

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