A trifling matter

If you're English (which I secretly am, in my heart-of-adopted-American-hearts), it's mandatory that you have the ability to make a mean trifle. And as I have matured, my definition of trifle has expanded waaaay beyond my Mum's fruit-in-jelly-topped-with-custard-and-maybe-whipped-cream. "Maybe", because as a child I hated whipped cream, can you believe it? So, with our overabundance of strawberries, exacerbated by my gleaning another twenty pounds on Friday morning, visions of strawberry trifle were dancing in my head.

First on the list was a cake. Angel-food cake usually fits the bill, if I can find one on the clearance rack or for a stupidly low sale price. Otherwise, a nice pound cake or buttermilk cake will do. 
Only, I'm almost out of unbleached flour.

No bleached flour in my kitchen.

I mean to say, who in their right mind wants to use flour that has the word "bleached" in the title?

It's just not right.

So, I perused my collection of cake mixes and found just the thing:

A Duncan Hines orange cake mix.

On the side was a gussied-up recipe, which turned out to be quite delicious.

Orange Pound Cake

1 package orange cake mix

1 package (3.4oz) instant pudding

(I used banana cream and it proved to be a fortuitous choice)

4 large eggs

1 c sour cream

1/3c oil

Mix all together. I added about 1/4c of water because it seemed to be a little stiff. Grease and flour a bundt pan (I used the Pam with flour included, it never fails me) and fill with cake batter. 

Bake at 350 F. I think it was about 45 minutes but might have been an hour. Just keep an eye on it and take it out when it's done, for goodness sake!
Ta-dah!

For this kind of trifle, I like to use a 9x13" pan, although you can layer it in a nice big glass bowl too, it's just a bit more work. 

First, cover the bottom of the pan with chunks of cake. I used half of the cake for this pan.

Then cover the cake with a generous layer of sliced strawberries.

Cover the berries with cooked vanilla pudding (you'll want two packages for a nice layer of pudding). Or, if you're English, custard.

Then (getting the idea?) slather the top with whipped cream.

None of that Cool Whip, mind you. 
That would be blasphemous.

We want no blasphemy in our trifle.

I made a second trifle on Sunday.

But I was out of whipping cream.

And the custard was lumpy.

We ate it anyway.

It was its own kind of delectable.