The Embarrassingly Easy Dessert I Bring To Every Gathering

After a birthday cake failure, this is the only dessert I'll make for parties.

When my daughter turned 5, we were invited by friends to their grand lake house to spend the day and celebrate the little princess birthday in style. Foolishly, I volunteered to bake a homemade birthday cake, something I’d never done before. But I love a good challenge, and I gave it all I had—time, research, and focus—to make a cake from scratch complete with pale pink homemade icing and sprinkles, of course.

Alas, it culminated in one of the most embarrassing cooking fails of my life. My cake "fell” and was concave in the middle. My icing then ran inward to form a gooey sticky pool. Adding more sprinkles didn’t help distract from the mess like I thought it may.

Friends, I wish I could tell you that I sensibly abandoned the disaster and bought a cake from the store. But stubborn as I am, I schlepped my eye-sore-of-a-cake to the lake using the line, it’ll taste better than it looks.

Everyone was so kind. But the burning humiliation stayed with me, and I vowed to find an easy-peasy sure-fire cake recipe which I’d be proud of.

Enter the chocolate trifle, a beloved Southern staple, courtesy of a good friend who excels at hospitality but values shortcuts. It’s grown to be my constant go-to dessert for all parties because its show-stopping, complicated layered appearance—ideally displayed in a large stately glass pedestal bowl—disguises how utterly simple it is to make.

I resist gloating, because shhh, this divine dessert is a stage-hog that brings the house down.

In so many ways, it feels good to go public with this secret-but-oh-so-simple recipe to help banish the stress of those short on time or talent. I’m convinced it will bring comfort when tasked with bringing a crowd-pleasing dessert for an upcoming party. Why be stressed?

Here’s the embarrassingly easy 4-ingredient recipe which will impress everyone you know—promise!

What you'll need:

• Take a box of chocolate cake—any brand you like—follow the directions, and bake.

• Cool completely and cut into small rectangular strips or square. (This is totally fine to do the day before.)

• Next, prepare one to two boxes of instant chocolate pudding according to directions. (How much pudding you use is a personal preference. Start with one; add a second if you want more.)

• Crush chunks of two or three Butterfinger candy bars (again, your personal preference dictates how many) in a sealed ziplock bag using a rolling pin.

• For the fourth and final ingredient, open a fresh tub of Cool Whip. If you’re a Cool Whip fan, make it two tubs for thicker layers—we’re not judging.

• Line up your ingredients in this order: cake, pudding, Butterfinger, and Cool Whip.

You are now ready to assemble.

What you'll do:

• Line the bottom of your elegant glass pedestal bowl with chunks of chocolate cake.

• Spread a layer of chocolate pudding and generously sprinkle with Butterfinger crumbs.

• Top with a layer of Cool Whip.

• Repeat layers of cake, pudding, candy bar, and Cool Whip until you reach the top of your bowl.

• For the final layer, sprinkle remaining Butterfinger crumbs over Cool Whip.

Ta-da. You’re done—I told you it was easy! The hard part will be fending off the attention of gobsmacked friends at the party. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

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Read the original article on Southern Living.