What Is the Cheapest Trifle Dessert You Have Made?

[jrstephens]

I was thinking of offering this to my host for April as a FREE gift from me, so, I want CHEAP. I thought about doing a chocolate cake, with instant chocolate pudding and then topping with cool whip - real simple.

 

[pampermeplease]

$4.36

89cent cake mix
2x 50 cent pudding mix
97 cent cool whip
1.50 strawberries

And the good news is you can go no or low fat/cal and sugar free on alot of it. As well as vary your flavors. Everyone who's tried it, likes it whatever flavor it's been so far. And it's CHEAP!! Biggest expense is the fruit and that will vary depending on what you use.

 

[janetupnorth]

Yeah, about the same here:

1 79 cent cake mix (yellow)
2 52 cent pudding mixes (banana cream)
1 98 cent cool whip (regular)
2 bananas - about 30 cents.

 

[janetupnorth]

I was thinking of offering this to my host for April as a FREE gift from me, so, I want CHEAP. I thought about doing a chocolate cake, with instant chocolate pudding and then topping with cool whip - real simple.

Yours is perfect too...also you can buy 1 Hershey bar, break it into squares and grate in your cheese grater over the top to mae it look nice and show another "tool".

 

[hoosierchef]

The Easy Chocolate Trifle was pretty cheap. Here was my cost breakdown:

$1.00 - 1 Bx Brownies
$1.00 - 2 box Chocolate pudding
$1.00 - Whipped Topping
$2.00 - Heath Toffee Bits
______
$5.00 Grand total (Give or take a few cents.)

I found the toffee bits on sale, so I just bought a bag of those. It was cheaper than buying the candy bars. Also, I bought Store Brand Chocolate Pudding.

 

[StacieB]

I have made this one as well!!!

$4.36

89cent cake mix
2x 50 cent pudding mix
97 cent cool whip
1.50 strawberries

And the good news is you can go no or low fat/cal and sugar free on alot of it. As well as vary your flavors. Everyone who's tried it, likes it whatever flavor it's been so far. And it's CHEAP!! Biggest expense is the fruit and that will vary depending on what you use.

 

[jrstephens]

Yours is perfect too...also you can buy 1 Hershey bar, break it into squares and grate in your cheese grater over the top to mae it look nice and show another "tool".

That's a good idea! And I mayj ust still have some chocolate bark in my pantry!

 

[hoosierchef]

I was thinking of offering this to my host for April as a FREE gift from me, so, I want CHEAP. I thought about doing a chocolate cake, with instant chocolate pudding and then topping with cool whip - real simple.

Try fudge Brownies.....it's soooo good this way.

 

[Aun]

Trifles...I made a variation of the Easy Chocolate Trifle from KraftFoods.com for Easter and it turned out beautifully and tasted great. I layered brownies, chocolate pudding, cool whip, and crushed Oreos. Everybody loved it! It was so easy, I'll definitely be doing it again.

Oh, and on the note of "cheap" trifles, don't forget that if fruit gets expensive or is out of season, canned pie filling works good, too! My SIL does a trifle with anglefood cake, vanilla pudding, canned blueberry filling, and cool whip that ends up tasting almost like a cheesecake.

Anyway, both are great!

 

[lilscrapmama]

Im in the process of throwing together some lemon stuff I have here...cake mix was on sale for $1, so was the cool whip & cant remember the sale price for the lemon pudding. anyway I dont know 100% how it will be yet, the cake is baking right now, but I LOVE LEMON so I know it will be yummy. I am going to add a can of raspberry pie filling to break up some of the lemon flavors for anyone else eating it at home

I just keep an eye out for cake mixes on sale & stock up now And the puddings & stuff too.

 

[pampermeplease]

My MIL does a 'cherry delight' desert that is layers of cherries, cool whip, grahm cracker crumbs, and cream cheese that would be a great layer desert in the trifle bowl too. And, again, cheap to make. I may just have to try this one too. (If it looks good in her tupperware containers, I think it'd look great in the glass trifle bowl! LOL)

Oh and the lemon trifle is AWESOME. First one I did and it turned out great....and I don't like lemon.

 

[DebbieSAChef]

Smores TrifleThis is way cheap and I plan on serving one of these at a sleepover this coming Sunday evening!!

Smore's Trifle
$1.00 package fudge striped shortbread cookies
$1.00 bag of large marshmallows
$1.00 chocolate syrup

I line up the striped cookies at the bottom and top with marshmallows that have been toasted with some chocolate syrup. I just keep doing that over and over again. Voila an easy cheap trifle!!

Strawberry Cheesecake Trifle (cheap)

$0.69 each 2 boxes Cheesecake pie and pudding filling (store brand)
$1.00 box of Graham crackers (generic)
$1.29 Strawberry glaze

Crush the graham crackers, and make the Cheesecake pudding. Line bottom of trifle with crushed graham crackers, top with pudding, and then top with glaze. Repeat!

Debbie

 

[jrstephens]

Debbie,

That strawberry cheesecake one sounds wonderful.... and Walmart has a strawberry glaze in the bakery department that I love. Does it fill the trifle bowl up with the graham crackers instead of a cake?

I am getting hungry just thinking about it ..............

 

[pampermeplease]

Ohhhhh I like the smores one! I have a girlie scout pot luck at the end of the month and I told her I'd be bringing a chocolate trifle but the smores sounds way better and more in tune with the gs's hehehe I might have to change it around now.

 

[crystalscookingnow]

My MIL does a 'cherry delight' desert that is layers of cherries, cool whip, grahm cracker crumbs, and cream cheese that would be a great layer desert in the trifle bowl too. And, again, cheap to make. I may just have to try this one too. (If it looks good in her tupperware containers, I think it'd look great in the glass trifle bowl! LOL)

What are the portions on this? It sounds delicious

 

[DebbieSAChef]

Yes

Debbie,

That strawberry cheesecake one sounds wonderful.... and Walmart has a strawberry glaze in the bakery department that I love. Does it fill the trifle bowl up with the graham crackers instead of a cake?

I am getting hungry just thinking about it ..............

Yes fill with the graham crackers instead. You can crush them as small as you want. I try not to get too much of crumbs but good pieces.

Debbie

 

[pampermeplease]

The cherry delight portions depend on which recipe you choose to go with and there are TONS of them out there! If you do a web search, you should get a lot of results. I don't have my MIL's recipe on hand since the one time I made it my hubby declared it "not as good as mom's" so I figured SHE could make it forever for him ^^ But I have seen versions that are just cherries, cherries and blueberries, and even cherries and peaches. There are so many that you could make it for weeks on end and not have the same one twice LOL try a google and see what you get. I'll see if I can get MIL's from her in the meantime.

 

[clshirk]

How are you guys doing these cake mixes? Are you cooking them in 8inch pans and do they perfectly transfer to the trifle bowl? I really want to do a trifle but didn't want to spend so much money. Now I"m seeing such great ideas!! Someone please go a little more into detail on this for me.

 

[DebbieSAChef]

Any way you want

How are you guys doing these cake mixes? Are you cooking them in 8inch pans and do they perfectly transfer to the trifle bowl? I really want to do a trifle but didn't want to spend so much money. Now I"m seeing such great ideas!! Someone please go a little more into detail on this for me.

You can do it anyway you want. I actually have never done that in the 8 inch pans to transfer to the trifle, but might try that next time. I usually just bake a big cake (9x13) and then cut up pieces and toss them in. I then layer my toppings until I am at the very top.
I have also made cupcakes because I wanted to save some cupcakes for something else. I just cut them up and threw them in. I also just cut up brownies and layer my stuff.

Debbie

 

[jrstephens]

I am going to bake mine in the large bar pan. I think thin is best b/c it will soak up the pudding and juices from the topping. I like my cakes moist in things like this. I just line my par pan with parchment paper and it is a breeze to clean up.

 

[KellyTheChef]

I am going to bake mine in the large bar pan. I think thin is best b/c it will soak up the pudding and juices from the topping. I like my cakes moist in things like this. I just line my par pan with parchment paper and it is a breeze to clean up.

I do the same as Jennifer here. Use SBP and line with parchment. To make any box cake mix more dense like a pound cake: add an additional egg than what it calls for, and add to it a small box of pudding mix (whatever flavor compliments the cake flavor) For a true "pound cake flavor" use butter flavor yellow cake, vanilla instant pudding, and I add 2 t. almond extract. Yummy!

I like the way it bakes up in the SBP, and it's easy to cube into small cubes! (I have tried different size cubes and like the smaller cubes (about 1/2" x 1/2") better than the larger ones.

 

[purrbal]

just a thought

Yeah, about the same here:

1 79 cent cake mix (yellow)
2 52 cent pudding mixes (banana cream)
1 98 cent cool whip (regular)
2 bananas - about 30 cents.

I think I would use a vanilla pudding for softer flavor (not a fan of fake banana flavors)

 

[purrbal]

I made a strawberry shortcake one. I used angel food cake mix, frozen strawberries (thawed) and cool whip and just alternated so I think you could manage plenty of choices it just comes down to things you find a great prices.

 

[gratergirl]

How about a "chocolate/peanut butter one without the reese cups?
Here's what I would do.....
chocolate cake mix
peanut butter (about 3 TBL)
cool whip
vanilla pudding
mix the cake and bake it.
Mix the vanilla pudding and some cool whip with the peanut butter (second layer) (makes a tan layer that tastes like peanut butter pudding!)
and layer that with the cake and top with cool whip