How to make a Very Berry English Trifle for The Royal Wedding

I’m not obsessed with Royal Family, but like many Americans….they hold my interest. From the fairytale traditions, to the glamour, all the way to the not so pretty royal scandals. I am here for all of it! When Dianna and Charles got married I wasn’t even a thought, but I’ve seen their wedding a dozen times. When William and Kate got married I acted as if I were anti-royal weddings, but secretly I was totally obsessed then too. This time around, I’m wearing my badge of honor, and am supporting Harry and Meghan’s nuptials with pride!

To celebrate I decided to make an English Berry Trifle. It’s perfect for the warm weather because it’s light and has tons of fruit. And I can’t leave out the fact that it is incredibly easy to make. It’s also a great dish to get the kids working in the kitchen. So, I asked Harper if she wanted to help out, and she got her apron, her stool, and walked over and said,  “I’m ready”. So, we got to work.

Now with this recipe you want to start with a Trifle Bowl. You can get them pretty much anywhere, but I purchased mine from Target. This bowl was created to show the beautiful layers of your trifle. Now, if you don’t have a trifle bowl, you can use a large bowl of any type. Just make sure that it has high walls to contain all of the ingredients and you want to try your best to use a glass container.

Now, let’s discuss the ingredients and add them as we go. First you will need a cake of some sort. The most common type of cake to use is Angel Food Cake, Pound Cake, Lady Fingers, or Sponge Cake. However, I’ve seen people use chocolate and strawberry cake, and it was absolutely delicious! For this trifle, I decided to go with Angel Food Cake. We will have a small viewing party, so I wanted to use a cake that was super light. Once you lock down your cake of choice, you want to add that layer first.

Step 1

When you add for your first layer, make sure that you place the cake against the walls of the bowl first. You can have uneven pieces when slicing the cake, or you can have even layers. Just make sure that your cake layers aren’t too thin because it needs to be able to suck up all the moisture from the other ingredients.

Step 2

Your next step will be to add the pudding or custard. The first time I made this cake, I just whipped up a quick instant vanilla pudding and mixed it with store bought whipped cream. This method made the pudding a little too lose for me, so then I started using pre made pudding from the bakery department at the grocery store (It’s the same place where I picked up the my angel food cake), and I mixed it with equal parts of homemade whipped cream. 

Step 3

After the pudding, you want to pour in your berry sauce. I added my simple berry sauce that I made the night before, you may have seen me make it on Instastories. I have seen variations of the trifle made without a berry sauce or jam, so you can leave out this part if you chose. I personally don’t recommend doing this because to me the sauce pulls everything together and leaves your trifle nice and moist. When adding this layer to your trifle, you just want to drizzle it around the pudding and cake, trying not to go too far to the edges so that it doesn’t show on the side of the the bowl. Trust me, I had to learn the hard way.

Step 4

You then need to add the berries. Add lots of berries and make sure that you have a huge assortment of them to add. All I did was wash and sliced some strawberries in thirds, and just washed the other berries and left as is. I used 2 pints of strawberries and a pint of blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. It’s not strawberry season, so this would be the perfect dish to show off some of this season’s harvest.

When adding the berries, this is the time to add a design that you would like. I’ve seen so many beautiful trifles, that it never occurred to me how difficult this step can be. Trust me, it can get messy really fast, so take your time when making your design. My number one tip for this step is to be sure to use pieces of cake to hold the fruit up against the wall of the bowl. Also, try not to use too much pudding around the edges, because it will seep through the fruit on the glass.

Step 5

Repeat steps 1-5 until you have reached the top of the bowl. Finish the dessert off with a final layer of berry sauce, pudding, and a ton of berries. You can make a gorgeous design or just over layer the berries like I always choose to do.

Oh, and how could I forget to tell you to top off your trifle with a few mint leaves. Not only does it add color, but it also pairs well with the fresh berries.

Now your English Berry Trifle is complete and totally worthy of being amongst the yumminess on the dessert table that I’m sure Harry and Meghan will have at their wedding. If you decide to give this recipe a try, please tag me at #DoneRecipe so that I can see how it turned out!

If you like this recipe for an easy dessert, then you may also enjoy my Apple Dump Cake recipe.

Thank you Dasha Crawford Photography for capturing these moments with my daughter and thank you The Pinafore Place for making our matching aprons.