Happy Independence Day! Since I was eleven, it’s been a tradition that I make a flag cake on the 4th of July. It all got started when I saw the simple recipe in a copy of my mother’s Better Homes and Garden magazine. It consisted of Sara Lee pound cake, Cool Whip, strawberries and blueberries all put together to look like the American flag. At the time it was the most complicated thing I had made and it was pretty, so it became my annual contribution to the holiday meal. Over the years I have altered the recipe by making the cake homemade, using real cream, etc. This year I made a dramatic change to a trifle and love the result.

The cake is a saffron citrus pound cake made with stevia instead of sugar. I can’t tell the difference between stevia and sugar and I bet you can’t either. Plus it using it takes away a TON of calories, so you don’t feel as guilty about the butter and cream. Using the new cake recipe made this dish incredibly delicious! You can make this trifle with any fruit on hand. I’m going to try it out with some of the great Texas peaches that are in season right now.

Red, White and Blueberry Trifle
(Cake recipe adapted from Foodnetwork.com)

For the Cake:
1/2 cup orange juice
2 pinches saffron
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup stevia granules
4 eggs
Zest of 1 lemon

For the Trifle:
8 oz. whipping cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
2 pints blueberries
2 lbs strawberries

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9 x 13 glass baking pan.
• In a small saucepan, bring the orange juice and saffron to a boil then turn the heat off immediately and let steep 5 minutes.
• In a bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt with a whisk to slightly aerate.
• In your stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or in a separate bowl using a hand mixer), cream the butter.
• Mix in the sugar. Then add the eggs one at a time. Add the lemon zest.
• Working in alternating batches, mix in 1/4 cup the dry ingredients and 1/4 cup of the saffron orange juice until all are incorporated. Mix just until smooth.
• Pour into the prepared pan and bake until it’s golden and a tester inserted into the center comes out dry and almost clean.
• Let the cake sit to cool. Once it’s cool enough to handle, slice the cake into bite-size cubes.
• Whip the cream with the vanilla until stiff peaks are formed.
• Wash the berries. Slice the strawberries into quarters.
• In a trifle dish put all the ingredients in alternating layers up to the top: cake, strawberries, cream, blueberries. Smooth the top with the remaining whip cream and decorate with the remaining berries.

Enjoy this while you can, it goes fast! Hope you had a spectacular 4th of July!