White Chocolate Mousse Holiday Trifle

I firmly believe that despite our flaws, the United States of America is still the greatest nation on the planet. I love celebrating the Fourth of July, and I'm not ashamed to say I love my country! As the fourth approaches, I have been thinking a lot about sharing some great recipe ideas with you all. I really wanted to create something great to end your holiday barbecue as you settle in to watch
fireworks light up the sky. What better way to celebrate America's birthday than with this show stopping and impressive White Chocolate Mousse Holiday Trifle?

Trifle is a really fun and easy dessert to assemble. (And I think you'll find it even more fun to eat!) I created this trifle to show love of country and love of food. The base layer is made of Red Velvet cake with sliced strawberries sprinkled in. Next, a creamy, fluffy layer of white chocolate mousse is generously applied over the layer of cake. Then the mousse is topped with fresh blueberries. Repeat the layers one more time in that order finishing off with a few whole strawberries in the center just to make it look extra pretty. Sparkler is optional, but how fun would it be to present this dessert to your guests with one lit on top! What a fun way to get everyone psyched up for fireworks!

I really love fireworks, don't you? If I had a bunch of money to blow I'd buy tons every year and put on my own show. Dead serious. Now that I live in the desert the public is limited as to the types of fireworks we can purchase, so I usually like to go to a public fireworks display somewhere in town. What's your favorite part of celebrating the Fourth of July? Parades? Parties? Food? Fireworks? It's all good! And so is this recipe, I hope you try it and let me know what you think!

White chocolate mousse holiday trifle

by The Goldilocks Kitchen

Prep Time: 45 mins

Cook Time: 10 mins

6073365

Ingredients (about 10 servings)

• 8 oz of white chocolate chips or white baking chocolate
• 2 and 1/2 cups of heavy cream
• 1 box of red velvet cake mix
• 3 large eggs
• 1 and 1/4 cup water
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 lb of fresh strawberries, sliced (save three whole as a garnish)
• 24 oz (1.5 lbs) of fresh blueberries

Instructions

1. Bake red velvet cake mix according to directions.

2. While the cake is baking, place the white chocolate chips into a medium mixing bowl. Heat 1/2 cup of heavy cream in a small sauce pot over medium high heat stirring constantly until it reaches a simmer. Remove from heat and pour over the white chocolate chips. Stir gently until all the chips are melted and smooth. Place in the fridge to cool.

3. Pour the remaining heavy cream into the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix on medium for about 30 seconds then on high until soft peaks form. (Watch the mixer, this can go fast.)

4. When the chocolate mixture is cooled, whisk in about 1/3 of the whip cream into the bowl with the white chocolate mixture. Gently pour this mixture into the bowl of remaining whip cream. With a large spatula, gently FOLD the chocolate mixture into the whip cream, by running your spatula along the sides of the bowl holding the bowl at an angle. If you mix to rough, the mousse will deflate.

5. When the cake is cooled, slice into 1 and 1/2 inch squares. Line the bottom of a trifle bowl with two layers of cake squares and slices of strawberry. Press down gently to squish just a bit. Add a layer of chocolate mousse to cover the cake/strawberries and then a single layer of blueberries on the mousse. Repeat with a single layer of cake squares/strawberries, then mousse again and a final layer of blueberries with the whole strawberries in the center. Cover with plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour to allow the mousse to set up. Serve.

Powered by Recipage

Easy Three Step Strawberry Cream Pie

Sweet strawberries enveloped by billowy whipped cream create a dreamy pie that is a cinch to make. If you want to impress a special someone for Valentines Day with a fabulous home cooked meal, top it off with this sinfully sweet treat. Of if you're just looking for a new pie flavor to shake things up for Sunday night dinner, this one is delightfully easy.

There's only three simple steps to create this pie~ stirring, folding and freezing. Frozen strawberries are stirred together with sweetened condensed milk, a jar of strawberry preserves, and a touch of lemon juice to blend the flavors.

Then you fold in an entire container of thawed whipped topping. Remember, folding is not stirring~ use a spatula and scoop along the sides of the bowl, gently and repeatedly folding over the top center of the whipped cream so it doesn't deflate.

When there's no more streaks of red or white, spoon it into store bought graham cracker crusts and freeze it to firm up. Just before you're ready to serve it, pull it out of the freezer and let it soften for about 10 minutes. I like to top it off with additional whipped cream, strawberries or chocolate curls for a garnish. I hope you truly enjoy this recipe!

Strawberry Cream Pie

by The Goldilocks Kitchen

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: freeze for 6 hours

Keywords: dessert Strawberries pie

6059904

Ingredients (2 pies, 12 servings each)

• 1 (18 ounce) Jar of strawberry preserves
• 1 (14 ounce) can of sweetened condensed milk
• 1 (10 ounce) bag of frozen strawberries
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 (16 ounce) container of frozen whipped topping, thawed
• 2 ready made graham cracker crumb pie crusts

Instructions

1. Thaw the strawberries in the microwave. Place them in a strainer over a sink or bowl and mash them, pressing the liquids out.

2. Combine the strawberries in a large bowl with the sweetened condensed milk, jar of strawberry preserves, and lemon juice and thoroughly combine,

3. Fold in the whipped topping gently (do not stir) until evenly combined. Spoon the filling into the ready made pie crusts and freeze for six hours or until firm. Before serving, let the pie soften at room temperature for about 10 minutes and add additional whipped topping and fresh strawberries or chocolate curls if desired to garnish.

Powered by Recipage

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

Anyone that knows me knows my absolute favorite treat ever is chocolate dipped strawberries. I have to credit Sallysbakingaddiction.com for this fantastic recipe for Strawberry Chocolate Chip cookies. She has a fabulous blog and I recommend you check it out. I got a little side tracked when I found this recipe and jumped off the diet bandwagon for a bit. But it's all good, I'll just be jumping right back on...

Sally has discovered a fabulous technique for using boxed cake mixes to make cookies~ genus idea for sure. These cookies would be perfect for a Valentines day treat, or heck, whenever you want to treat yourself! 

These cookies will bake up very very soft and it's important to let them cool on the baking sheet a bit before removing them to a cooling rack. I think they look much cuter when chocolate chips are actually pressed into the tops of each dough ball before baking, and I've specified that in the recipe. I usually put more chocolate chips in my chocolate chip cookie recipes than is called for, because I am a professed chocoholic. But I actually found that less is more when using the strawberry cake batter. I found my taste buds overwhelmed with chocolatiness and I wanted to taste more of the strawberry flavor, so I re-wrote the recipe a bit to reflect my tastes. You will love how simple and quickly these cookies will go from a picture to your plate. Gotta try em! 

Enjoy :0)

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Cookies

by The Goldilocks Kitchen

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 10 to 12 minutes

6059306

Ingredients (2 dozen)

• 1 box of strawberry cake mix
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup chocolate chips for garnish

Instructions

1. Adjust oven racks to upper middle and lower middle position. Set oven temp to 350 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cake mix and baking powder.

3. In a smaller bowl, or a stand mixer bowl, mix eggs, oil, and vanilla. Slowly incorporate the dry cake mix into the wet ingredients. The dough will be stiff. Mix in 1 cup of chocolate chips.

4. Place cookie dough balls on prepared baking sheets. Press the remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate chips into the tops of the dough balls.

5. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating your baking sheets from upper to lower and spinning back to front. Pull them out if you see any cookies begin to brown. ( There's nothing wrong with a touch of brown, they just don't look as pretty.) Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. They will be very soft. Serve.

Powered by Recipage