Well, this was an accident.  A big accident!  I made my Vanilla Bean Noel bundt cake for a girls night a few weeks ago.  I made it in the morning, frosted it and put it in my cake container with the lid on.  Well…later that afternoon, I went to move it and accidentally dropped the container on the floor…it flipped and landed upside down.  My kids and husband could hear me screaming from across the house.  When I opened the container, the cake was smashed…I was so sad…then I had a moment of brilliance (yes, I’m calling it brilliance!)…I turned my smashed cake into a quick trifle.

I had one box of vanilla pudding in the pantry and a tub of Cool Whip in the fridge.  With those two ingredients, I turned my smashed cake into the best trifle I’ve ever made.  My husband can’t stop talking about it.  If you don’t want to bake and frost a homemade cake for this trifle, just buy one at your bakery.  The results are just too good not to try.  Plus, you can mix and match this like crazy…use a chocolate cake with chocolate pudding..a pumpkin cake with butterscotch pudding…you could go nuts with combinations.  Here’s how to do it…

Shopping List

1 frosted cake

1 large box of instant vanilla pudding

3 cups of milk

1 (8 oz) container of Cool Whip

Sprinkles, optional

In a large bowl, crumble your frosted cake into big chunks.  In a separate bowl, whisk pudding mix with 3 cups of milk.  Let it set 5 minutes then stir in your container of Cool Whip.  In a trifle dish, layer 1/3 of your crumbled cake then 1/3 of your Cool Whip mixture.  Repeat two more times.  Add sprinkles to the top.

That’s it!  Done!

The frosted cake gives this trifle a richness that is just to die for.  Keep the trifle in the fridge until you’re ready to serve it.  This can turn a bad cake day into a great dessert day!