Patriotic Strawberry and Blueberry Trifle

This recipe is one I've made quite a few times before and I can't imagine an Independence Day without it. With that said, it's one of the few recipes that uses pre-made ingredients. In fact, I didn't bake anything for it, I use a pre-made Angel Food Cake (almost always from Publix). This is partly because I'm lazy and partly because Publix makes a better Angel Food cake than I've ever made.

To make this recipe you'll need an Angel Food cake, blueberries and strawberries, as well as the custard recipe below. Assemble the trifle by layering cake, berries, custard, cake, berries, and custard until you run out. Also, I used vanilla beans to flavor the custard because I ran out of vanilla extract (more on that tomorrow) and only had vanilla beans.



Custard Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons corn starch
• 2 large egg yolks
• 2 cups milk
• 1 tsp vanilla extract (or seed scrapings from a vanilla bean)
  

Directions

1. Combine sugar and corn starch in saucepan (no heat).
2. Whisk in egg yolks.
3. Gradually whisk in 2 cups milk.
4. Cook over medium/low heat until boiling/thick, stirring constantly.
5. Remove from head and add vanilla.
6. Transfer to pyrex bowl, cover with plastic wrap (to prevent pudding skin from forming) and refrigerate.