Red Velvet Cake Trifle

Well now... isn't this fancy? I told you that I was in love with my trifle dish. Of course, for Christmas I had to pull out some hoity toity dish to make my family oohh and aahh. This was awesome! It seems like a lot of steps, but if you made this for a party or shower of some kind, you'd be so impressive!

Red Velvet Cake Trifle

Adapted from www.recipegirl.com

Ingredients

Cake:

1 c butter, room temp

1 3/4c sugar

2 1/2c flour

1 1/4tsp salt

2 eggs

1c buttermilk

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2tsp vinegar

1 1/2tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

1 oz red food coloring

Syrup:

1/3c granulated sugar

1/3c water

1/2tsp vanilla

The rest:

4 oz cream cheese, room temp

8 oz marscapone cheese

1/3 c sugar

2 c heavy whipping cream

sliced almonds (about 1 c)

shaved chocolate (4 oz)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9x13 inch pan generously with cooking spray, then dust lightly with flour.

Cake: With an electric mixer, blend butter and sugar in a large bowl. Sift together flour and salt in a separate bowl. Mix the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla, baking soda, and vinegar in a separate bowl. Alternate adding flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to the butter mixture. Mix well after each addition. In a small bowl, mix red food coloring and cocoa powder; add to the cake mixture until just combined. Pour batter into a prepared pan and bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. You don't want the cake to be soft and super moist, so be sure to bake until its totally done.

Syrup: In a small saucepan, bring sugar and water to boil over medium heat. Stir to dissolve sugar completely. Stir in vanilla. Let cool.

Cut the cake in half and cut one half into cubes. Brush with the cooled syrup. You likely won't need the whole cake for the trifle, so save for another purpose (like eating plain all day long).

Whipped layer: In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, mascarpone and sugar on high speed until light and fluffy. Reduce the speed to medium and slowly pour in heavy whipping cream. Continue beating until mixture resembles soft whipped cream.

Assembly: In the bottom of your trifle dish, arrange a single layer of cake chunks. Spoon about 1 1/2c of whipped topping on top of cake cubes. Next, sprinkle almonds then shaved chocolate. Keep repeating layers until you run out of room. Garnish with mint, if you have some.