Trifle 101: Inside the layers

It's the holi-graze season. Endless treats at the office, topped with evening and weekend events and festivities. Graze away. All food. All festive. All, well mostly all, fattening.

If you want to do your part, why not do a trifle? You can get a bowl at Wal-Mart or many fine retailers. A friend of mine was seeking some ideas today and I thought, why not make some of my top-secret seasonal sensations public?

I have never made two exactly the same. I'm a experimental mixologist. But here are a few of my Christmas-time favorites:

Eggnog Gingerbread Trifle

For crumbled cake layer: Mix up a spice cake mix as directed. Add and mix in 1 Tb molasses and 1 tsp nutmeg. For pudding layer: Mix it with eggnog instead of milk. Third layer is whipped cream. I topped mine with top with Craisins and Ginger Snap cookies.

Chocolate Candy Cane Trifle

Delicious layers of crumbled chocolate cake baked with a hint of peppermint (extract or oil), white chocolate pudding, delicately crushed Milano chocolate peppermint cookies, and extra creamy non-dairy whipped topping.

Chocolate-Peppermint Trifle

A slightly different take with many of the same flavors. The chocolate layer consists of crumbled brownies I baked with Andes Peppermint Baking Chips mixed in. The pink/red layer above that is cheesecake pudding, mixed with some eggnog and a few drops of red food coloring strictly for presentation purposes.

Next layer up is crushed Keebler Peppermint Stripe Cookies (the holiday version of their famous Fudge Stripe Cookies). Topped with a thin layer of whipped cream to divide the colors. (I have heard they do have Peppermint Cool Whip but I could not locate any. Without it, I think it's just minty enough. Not overwhelming.)

Thin Mint Trifle

And now for the "other mint" of the season. There's so many ways you can do this. I baked my cake with mint chips – I think I got them at Fleet Farm, which surprisingly has everything for creative bakers. Other layers are crushed Thin Mints (which you can buy generically year-round) and either cheesecake flavored or white chocolate flavored pudding (with green food coloring for presentation, of course). Plus whipped cream. Top with the chips and Andes Mints.

Pumpkin Spice Eggnog Trifle

If you can't let go of the pumpkin spice season... For crumbled cake layers, I baked a yellow cake mix but added 1 teaspoon Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix for flavor. This was a really light flavor though, so you probably could go with 2 teaspoons or a tablespoon. For pudding layers, I used Pumpkin Spice instant pudding with some Pumpkin Spice Eggnog mixed in with the milk. (For serious Spice Girls only.) Layer further with whipped cream.

Who's hungry? This'll get you started! Happy holi-graze!