Easter Trifle

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This stunningly colorful Easter trifle is adorned with equally eye-catching buttercream nests of mini eggs.

Prep Time3

Cook Time1

Chilling Time3

Total Time7

Course: dessert

Cuisine: american

Keyword: easter trifle, easter trifle desserts, easter trifle recipes, easter trifle recipes with pictures, easy trifle, parfait recipe dessert

Servings: 3.25 quart trifle dish

Calories: 612kcal

Equipment

Ingredients

1 batch of my Perfect Vanilla Cake batter
food coloring pink, yellow, blue and purple

Vanilla pudding:

½ cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
pinch salt
2 cups whipping cream
2 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 16 oz container Cool Whip thawed

Nests:

1 cup unsalted butter room temperature
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 ½ cups powdered sugar
food coloring pink, yellow and blue
½ cup mini eggs

Instructions

Make the pudding:

Pour the sugar, cornstarch and salt into a pot. Whisk to combine. Add the egg yolks and heavy cream and whisk until well combined. Set the pot to medium-high heat and whisk constantly for 5-10 minutes, until the mixture has thickened and is bubbling.
Pour the pudding through a sieve, then add the vanilla extract and butter, whisking until well combined.
Press a sheet of plastic wrap onto the surface of the pudding and place in the fridge until chilled, about 3 hours. You can also make this in advance and chill it in the fridge overnight.

Bake the cake:

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Divide the batter into 4 bowls. Dye it pink, yellow, blue and purple. Spoon each bowl of batter into a greased and floured 6-inch round cake pan.
Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a skewer inserted into each cake comes out clean. Cool completely.

Make the nests:

Beat the butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla extract and mix until combined.
Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, beating with each addition. Then mix for 2-3 minutes, until the buttercream is light and fluffy.
Divide the buttercream into 3 bowls. Dye it pale pink, pale yellow and pale blue. Place it into piping bags fitted with large, grass piping tips (I used #234 piping tips).
Line a tray with parchment paper. This tray should be able to fit in your freezer.
Create the nests by piping rings of the pink, yellow and blue buttercream onto the tray. Create 2 nests per color. Fill the nests with mini eggs and place the tray into the freezer while you assemble the trifle.

Assembly:

Use a serrated knife to trim off the browned tops, bottoms and edges of the cake. You can reserve these for cake pops, but we don’t want to use them in this recipe because we want the cake to look as bright and colorful as possible through the sides of the glass. Then slice each cake into 2 layers. The base layer will be flat and the top layer will be slightly risen.
Cut the flat purple cake into six wedges and the rounded layer into strips. Place them into the base of a 3.25 quart trifle dish, arranging the strips between the wedges. Check the sides of the dish to ensure that the cake looks even on all sides. Stick any remaining pieces of cake into empty areas.
Place the Cool Whip into a piping bag fitted with a large, round piping tip. Pipe a ring of cool whip around the edge of the dish and a large dollop in the middle of the dish. Spoon the vanilla pudding into the empty ring in the center.
Repeat with another layer of cake – blue this time! Then follow with another ring and dollop of cool whip and then the pudding. Continue with the yellow cake, then the pink layer.
Spread the remaining Cool Whip over the entire surface of the trifle.
Peel the nests off the parchment paper and gently place them in a ring on top of the trifle. Serve and enjoy!

Notes

This trifle should serve about 15-20 people, as it is quite large. The nutritional facts are calculated based on the trifle serving 20 people, so about one generous spoonful as seen in a photo within this post.

Nutrition