I love to start a post with a somewhat relevant story, so here it goes! When I graduated law school I entered into the suckiest legal market in recent history. With little experience I was relegated to the document review world or as I called it, the land of the unwanted attorney. Basically, the work was super boring and simple enough that a trained monkey could do it. Then the jobs were temporary with no benefits. When I tell you it was THE worst. As you can imagine, we tried to make the best of it. On one project, everyone would bring in desserts once a month for the whole team. It was a small bright spot in a hellish job environment.
Anywho during one potluck, a friend of mine brought this dish called a banana trifle AND I have been obsessed with every since. It is basically banana pudding with the addition of pound cake at the bottom layer. Let me tell you this is bomb!! As I geared up for a potluck at my current job (MUCH better job might I add) I recalled the banana trifle from some years ago and decided to go with that. I did not like any of the directions I found online, SO I made my own. Because I am extra, I also made my own whipped cream and pound cake. If you are in a hurry purchase those items pre-made and skip on down to the banana trifle directions.
Whipped Cream

Homemade Whipped Cream
- Ingredients
- 2 Cups cold heavy whipping cream
- 4 TableSpoons of powdered sugar (taste and add more as needed)
- You can use regular sugar, but powdered sugar will make the process go faster!
- Directions
- Place your KitchenAid metal mixing bowl into your fridge for about 20 minutes.
- Add cold heavy whipping cream and powdered sugar into bowl and begin to whip using the whisk attachment on the mixer.
- Continue to whip on high speed until the whipped cream forms into stiff peaks.
- Store in the fridge until ready to eat!
- Tips
- For every cup of whipping cream add about two tablespoons of sugar. The amount listed above yielded enough whipped cream for this dish and then some, but if you need more, use this equation.
- If you would like to add more flavor, up the powdered sugar or throw in some Vanilla Extract.
Pound Cake

Cake BY the pound- Beyonce
Pound cakes get their name from the pound of each ingredient that is used, so there is not much variation there when it come to recipes. I went ahead and used the Pioneer Woman’s directions to create the pound cake. Rather than me retyping this whole thing, just head to that blog and use their directions. I nixed the orange jest though and added two teaspoons of almond extract because I LOVE the flavor.
Okay… on to the grand finale, the banana trifle directions!
Banana Trifle

All the ingredients.

Instant Pudding!
- Ingredients
- Whipped Cream (made above or one container of Cool Whip)
- Pound Cake cubed or broken into crumbs
- One box of Vanilla Wafers
- Four large bananas, sliced.
- Two boxes of instant banana pudding (follow directions on the box)
- Directions
- After all of the items are made you just need to layer them in the best way for your dish. Also use a trifle dish because it is just prettier.
- Start with a layer of pound cake. Smash pieces in gaps to ensure that you have an even layer of pound cake.
- Next layer the banana pudding, sliced bananas, then vanilla wafers (crumbs if you like), and whipped cream. Repeat until bowl is full, but try to end with whipped cream.
- Top with bananas or wafers to finish it off.
- Store in the fridge until ready to serve!
- After all of the items are made you just need to layer them in the best way for your dish. Also use a trifle dish because it is just prettier.
Overall:
Great thing about this dish is you can do what you want, layer how you want and add what you want. Some folks like to throw in nuts on top and others skip out on the bananas because they do not like mushiness. I made a couple of containers (hence the two different pictures) and each time I layered it differently. I love it and plan to add it to the potluck rotation!
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