Gingerbread Trifle is a layered dessert of homemade gingerbread cake, pumpkin spice pudding, and white chocolate pudding, topped with a whipped topping and more cake pieces. Try this Very Berry Trifle for another delightful layered dessert.
Gingerbread Trifle
A traditional trifle is an English dessert that is layered with some sort of cake, custard, fruit, and whipped cream. This trifle doesn’t have any fruit, but it is definitely a layered dessert. It starts with moist gingerbread cake and two layers of pudding, repeated two more times. And, of course, it’s all topped with creamy whipped topping.
Gingerbread Trifle Ingredients
Cake: The molasses in the gingerbread cake is unsulphured molasses. Unsulphured molasses (regular molasses) is richer, thicker, and sweeter than sulphured. It is made with fewer preservatives because it is made with more mature sugarcane. Sulphured molasses has added sulfur dioxide to the younger sugarcane, which can alter the flavor of the recipe.
Pudding Layers: You will need two boxes of white chocolate instant pudding mix. One of the puddings will have pumpkin pie spice and whipped topping added to the mix, giving it a pumpkin spice flavor.
Pumpkin Pie Spice: If you don’t have this spice on hand, make your own homemade pumpkin spice!
Individual Serving Trifles
Instead of serving out of one big trifle bowl, you could also use mason jars to make individual servings of this dessert. It’s fun to have people assemble their own dessert with all the available layer options laid out, or you can have them individually assembled before you serve them!
Creamy No Bake Desserts
Gingerbread Trifle
Ingredients
Gingerbread Cake
- 9 tablespoons (128 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- ⅓ cup (67 g) granulated sugar
- ¾ cup (253 g) molasses, unsulphured
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 2¼ cups (281 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¾ cup (177 g) water
Pumpkin Spice Pudding Layer
- 1 box (3.3 ounces) instant white chocolate pudding mix
- 2 cups (490 g) whole milk, cold
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 16 ounces whipped topping, divided
White Chocolate Pudding Layer
- 1 box (3.3 ounces) instant white chocolate pudding mix
- 2 cups (490 g) whole milk, cold
Instructions
Gingerbread Cake
- Preheat the oven to 325°F. Spray a 9×9-inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the molasses and egg. Beat until smooth.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and salt.
- Add about 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the butter and sugar mixture, mixing until just combined (don't overmix). Add half the water, followed by another third of the dry ingredients. Pour in the remaining water and add the final third of the dry ingredients. Mix until combined.
- Pour batter into prepared baking dish. Bake 45-50 minutes. (Check the cake after about 30 minutes; cover with aluminum foil if the edges are getting too dark.) The cake is done when an inserted toothpick comes out with a few crumbs, but no wet batter. Remove from the oven and let cool as you prepare the pudding.
Pumpkin Spice Pudding
- In a bowl, combine a box of pudding mix with 2 cups milk and pumpkin pie spice, whisking for 2 minutes.
- Gently fold in half (8 ounces) of the whipped topping, reserving the other half for the topping. Refrigerate until ready to use.
White Chocolate Pudding
- In a bowl, add a box of white chocolate pudding mix and 2 cups cold milk. Whisk for about 2 minutes. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Assembly
- When the cake has completely cooled, cut it into 1-inch cubes.
- Cover the bottom of a trifle dish with a single layer of gingerbread cake pieces.
- Top with a cup of the pumpkin spice pudding, followed by a cup of the white chocolate pudding
- Repeat this layering two more times.
- Top with the reserved whipped topping and extra gingerbread cake pieces.
- Chill until ready to serve.
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This would be delicious with sliced bananas added to one of the top layers. As a child a favorite dessert was gingerbread cake split in half and topped with bananas and whipped cream . 😋
I am so making this for Christmas. Molasses hooked me first then the pumpkin pie spice.
Can this be frozen?