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When I was trying to decide what to make for my seventh submission to the Whip It Up challenge, I came across Fitzalan’s post where she mentioned her Ultra Delicious Trifle (that’s my title, not hers, but I bet she’d agree with me). She spoke of how quickly it disappeared, describing it thusly:

This is always my go-to summer dessert and I don’t think anyone knows how easy this is when I serve it!!! It was a sugar-free angel food cake that I bought at the store, fat-free cheesecake flavor pudding (made with skim milk), then some strawberries and blueberries. Topped with light whipped cream. I had 3 layers of the food cake with the pudding and fruit in between. There was a line of people to eat this and it was gone literally in about 3 minutes.

(Completely off-topic: Fitzalan leaves not far from me in northern VA and has expressed interest in accompanying me to a Strip Aerobics class. I seem to be inspiring people to try new things! I love it! Not to mention, Fitz is a fitness badass so I think she’s totally rad.)

Here is where I prove my dedication to the Whip it Up challenge: I didn’t start putting this together yesterday until 11pm!!! After I got home from work last night at 6pm, I met up with a few friends and we ended up hanging out until 10pm. I left my apartment to pick up the ingredients I needed at the grocery store around 10:30pm. I was home by 11, then I had to mix the cake and get that in the oven (it took 40 minutes to cook). While it was baking, I put the pudding together. I took a photo, let the cake cool and put it away, and washed the baking pan by hand. I wanted to get it all done last night, though, because I’m tentatively supposed to hang out with someone else after work tonight and I didn’t want to miss the cooking challenge deadline for this week.

Confession: I didn’t put the trifle together completely. I was tasting way too many of the ingredients while I was putting various things together (I know! At 11pm! What was I thinking?), which meant I already had a major sugar-high going on and I did not need to make myself an actual full serving once the cake finished cooling.

So I put the individual ingredients on a plate, like this:

The pudding looks kind of runny — which is weird, because I actually used less milk than the instructions on the box called for (about 1.5 cups instead of 2 cups). Next time I’d use just 1 cup of skim/soy milk so it would turn out thicker.

I didn’t want to mix all the ingredients together last night because I figured the cake would get all soggy, and also I didn’t want to be tempted to eat it all myself. What I’ll probably do is take the ingredients with me to Richmond tomorrow (I’m spending the night there tomorrow night) and let some people there have at it.

Adjustments I made to Fitzalan’s version: I didn’t use blueberries (only strawberries) and I used soy milk instead of skim milk.

Was it good? Hello. It’s cake, whipped topping, pudding, and fruit. What’s not to like? It’s very easy to make and, like Fitzalan said, it’s sure to be a crowd-pleaser at a group gathering. I’d make it again.

Ultra Delicious Trifle

1 box fat-free angel food cake mix
1 box sugar-free cheesecake flavored pudding mix
1 cup skim or soy milk
1 8-oz container lite whipped topping
strawberries/blueberries/other fruit

Prepare cake and pudding according to package directions. Once the cake cools, tear the cake into chunks and layer it in a large bowl with the prepared pudding, softened whipping topping, and fruit of your choice.