Three Berry Trifle with Mango Custard

Easy peasy dessert that looks like you spent hours on it.  Looks beautiful in a clear glass bowl with straight sides, too. Can also be made in a loaf pan.

Ingredients

• 1 pint blueberries
• 1 pint strawberries, hulled and cut into thick slices
• 2 pint raspberries  (You can use any combination of berries you like.  This recipe makes a HUGE trifle, so you can half the ingredients to make a smaller one.) 
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup of mango (I used fresh, canned might work if you drain it well) 
• 1 pint whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon sugar + 1 teaspoon  additional sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 store bought pound cake, sliced 1/2-inch thick  (Angel food cake or lady fingers don't work quite as well.)

Directions

Wash and prep berries. Place the berries into a large bowl and sprinkle with 1/4 cup sugar. Lightly toss.  Let berries sit for about 10 minutes. This will allow the sugar to draw the juice out of the berries and create a thin syrup. Pour the syrup off into a small container and reserve for next step.

In a clean bowl, whip half of the cream with the mango, the syrup reserved from the berries and the vanilla until it thickens to a custard like consistency.  (I use my Magic Bullet and this part takes about 3 minutes). 

Prepare the second half of the whipped cream for final layer.  (Whip the cream with a teaspoon of sugar until stiff peaks form.) 

To assemble the trifle, spoon a layer of the mango custard into a large glass bowl. Add a layer of pound cake,  breaking the slices into pieces that fit. Then soak the cake with a layer of berries and their juices. Keep  going to make 3 or 4 more layers, depending on the size of the bowl, finishing with a layer of plain whipped cream. 

Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

This is one of my own recipes and I make many variations of this recipe.  Try adding mint to the whipped cream or create another "custard" to go between the layers.  I actually like this recipe better than classic shortcake.

~Suzanne