Patriotic Berry Trifle

We were invited to a Labor Day cookout and I started brainstorming dishes I could bring to the potluck.  Potato salad, baked beans, watergate salad, fruit and burgers/dogs were already claimed, so that narrowed it down to me bringing a dessert. :)

I wanted to bring something patriotic to celebrate the holiday, and had a few things in mind:

• Red, white, and blue layered round cake, like this one from I Am Baker:

• Blueberry and cherry pie tarts, like these from Our Best Bites:

• Or, my old faithful dessert - tie-dye cupcakes, dressed up for the occasion, like these from One Ordinary Day:

All great options, but we lost power due to Miss Irene on the 27th and still didn't have it back by the following weekend, so I had to go with something that required no baking, no microwaving, no refrigeration, etc.  You see, even if we got power back Friday night (when I went shopping for my dessert) or the next day, I was not comfortable with putting anything in the newly cool fridge until I cleaned it top to bottom.  All the shelves had to come out and get scrubbed down before I'd put fresh food in there.  Lord knows what kind of bacteria was lurking in there after 7 days without power.

When I got to Martin's for my brainstorming, all I had to do was walk in the door and saw that they had done all the work for me...they had pre-baked pound cakes on display right next to huge cartons of strawberries and blueberries.  Light Bulb!  I could make a patriotic berry trifle!  I couldn't buy anything then because I had no way to keep the berries cool, but I had the idea to think about until Sunday morning on the way to the picnic.

Here's my inspiration photo - I'd source it, but I found the identical photo on at least 10 blogs and can't figure out who did it first versus who stole it without credit:

After stopping at the store in the morning and bringing home the berries to wash them, we made our way to the picnic.  I assembled my trifle at the hostess' house - is that rude?  I tried to bring all the tools I needed with me - cutting board, knife, trifle dish, etc. - so I wouldn't be in her way, but it might have been a tad annoying to take up her counterspace.  Sorry Sharon! :)

Here's the finished product...

...and here's what you'll need if you want to make this the easy way, like I did:

• 1 loaf (4x8) of pound cake
• 2 pints strawberries, hulled and sliced
• 2 pints blueberries
• 2 containers of fat free Cool Whip

So easy to assemble - just cube the pound cake and throw half of it into the trifle dish, top with 1/2 of your sliced strawberries, 1 container of Cool Whip, 1/2 of your blueberries, then repeat each layer.  I saved some blueberries and 1 unsliced strawberry to decorate the top, just for fun!


It was yummy!