Berry & Mascarpone Whipped Cream Trifle-Cake - You won't believe how easy this is to make...

UMMMM this is probably one of my fave new dessert recipes! Wow wow wow! I was so happy with how this turned out especially since it's SOOO SUPER EASY to make yet it looks SOOO impressive when it's ready to serve! It's a no-bake trifle, but turns out more like a cake and I found this recipe from Martha Stewart during one of my pinterest/blog/internet recipe binge sessions (see original recipe here: Martha Stewart's Red, White & Blue Berry Trifle). I don't even remember how I stumbled upon this but I'm so happy I did!!!

Trust me, you can make this too! It's basically layered lady fingers, berries with sugar & a homemade mascarpone whipped cream. The mascarpone makes it sound more fancy than it is lol and it does add that delicious richness to the dish.

I made this trifle-cake for one of my friends' bachelorette parties. We had a jam packed weekend of bachelorette activities planned and I wanted to make sure we had a yummy dessert to go along with all the food and many, many, many drinks! The bachelorette destination was a 2 hour drive up north, so I wanted to make sure this would transport OK and not be a melty mess. I kept it in the springform pan and packed it with a lot of ice packs and it held up quite well. I popped it into the freezer once I got to the airbnb and it turned out great! I forgot to leave enough time to let it thaw before serving, so it was a little frozen ... but it kinda made it taste like an ice cream cake/sorbet and everyone really enjoyed it! I adjusted the recipe to include blackberries since these were on sale when I was doing my shopping, and I don't really see any limitations to using other berries or even stone fruits for this dessert!

For all my American friends, this would be THE dessert to make for your upcoming July 4th festivities... the red white and blue makes for a super patriotic dessert :D

Check out the pictures and the step by step recipe below!

The final creation! This was fresh out of the freezer so the blueberries have some pretty frost on them!

Everyone at the 'Bach-ella' enjoyed this tasty treat! P.s. aren't these flower crowns so cute... I never knew how creative and crafty my friends were :)

The layers of this dessert were so yummy! And it looks quite pretty when you slice it up!

Berry & Mascarpone Whipped Cream Trifle - Cake

Adapted from Martha Stewart: Martha Stewart's Red, White & Blue Berry Trifle

Serves 10

1.5 cups fresh raspberries

2 cups fresh blackberries

juice from 1 large orange

3/4 cups icing sugar

10 oz mascarpone cheese

1 1/4 cups cold whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of salt

20 lady fingers (about 2 packages), broken in half

2 cups blueberries

1. In a medium bowl, add the raspberries, blackberries, juice from the orange and 1/4 cup of the icing sugar. Mix all together and press the berries down with the back of a fork to release the juices. Let sit while you prepare the remaining ingredients, about 10 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, combine the mascarpone and 1/2 cup of the icing sugar and mix until smooth (I used my kitchenaid stand mixer with the whisk attachment). Once smooth, add in the cream, vanilla and pinch of salt and whisk until soft peaks form, this took me about 4 minutes on High.

3. Line a springform pan with two large pieces of parchment paper, so that the paper hangs over the sides (as pictured above). Assemble half of the ladyfingers in the bottom of the pan and top with the raspberry & blackberry mixture with juices. Next, top that with half of the whipped cream. Repeat with the rest of the ladyfingers, berries and whipped cream.

4. Top with the blueberries and refrigerate until whipped cream is stiff. I refrigerated it overnight and then froze it overnight too. If you freeze it, make sure you allow 2-3 hours to defrost so that the berries aren't completely frozen and it's easy to slice through. And that's it! You're ready to serve, devour & enjoy this summery berry treat!