Holiday Baking

I love baking and every year around the holidays I look for new desserts to create, and not burn my house down with. This year I stumbled upon the recipe for a favorite dessert of mine with a Christmas-y twist. A chocolate trifle, but with the addition of candy canes and peppermint extract, becomes a Chocolate Peppermint Trifle. It’s delicious, pretty easy to make and looks downright festive!

 
Ingredients you will need:
 
-Chocolate cake (Not going to lie, I’m no Martha Stewart. I bought a box Duncan Hines Devil’s food cake mix, and baked cakes in two 9 inch round pans.)
-2 boxes of instant chocolate pudding (I used Jell-O brand.)
-4 cups of milk (To mix with the pudding.)
-1 quart heavy whipping cream
-1 cup powdered sugar
-2 teaspoons peppermint extract (I hear this has been done with peppermint schnapps instead, not sure how that would taste, but definitely worth a shot sometime!)
-Chocolate syrup
-Candy canes (These need to be crushed to sprinkle over each layer of whipped cream. I suggest placing the candy canes in a zip lock bag and breaking up the pieces with a hammer.)
 
Directions:
 
1.) Bake chocolate cake as directed on box-unless you want to be a total over-achiever and make the whole thing from scratch. Let cool completely.
2.) Make pudding as directed on the package and place in fridge to set.

3.) Whip the heavy cream, powdered sugar and peppermint extract in a bowl together, until stiff peaks form and it looks like the consistency of whipped cream.
4.) Hammer away at the candy canes until they are crushed up enough to be sprinkled over the peppermint whipped cream.

5.) Alternate layers of cake, pudding, peppermint whipped cream, chocolate syrup and candy canes in a glass trifle bowl, or whatever container you would like to put it in.

6.) Keep in fridge until eating-if you aren’t serving until the next day, hold off on the top layer of peppermints until then! The color may seep into the peppermint whipped cream too much-which, hey, not the end of the world, but not as nice looking.

 
There you have it, a simple yet delicious way to ring in the holiday season!