Eggnog trifle

Thursday night I finally got around to making the KAF eggnog cake mix that's been sitting on the shelf for ages.  Apparently I didn't prep the pan well enough, because a significant chunk - and I do mean chunk - of the cake didn't want to come out of the pan.  So much for taking it to work for a Happy Spring cake.

Instead, I made trifle.  I've only made trifle a coupla times and the last time was years ago, but I figured "How hard can it be?"  I broke the cake into chunks and put half of it into my biggest plastic container, then covered it with half a small box of vanilla pudding (made with a bit of eggnog extract added), then sprinkled on about half a cup of gingersnap crumbs.  Oh, and one layer was half the glaze that comes with the cake mix. Topped that with the rest of the cake, glaze and the pudding, then decided that wasn't enough pudding.  Made a second small box of vanilla pudding with a splash of eggnog extract, poured it, still hot, over the trifle, sprinkled it with another 1/2 cup of gingersnap crumbs, then topped the lot with a small container of cool whip.

It wasn't bad, and people seemed to enjoy it, but there are a couple of things I'd do differently:

1. Use a big box of pudding, and maybe even a small one in addition to the big one.

2. Maybe use a big tub of cool whip so I can add a layer in the middle of the trifle, not just on top.

3. Next time, grease the cake pan really, really well!  :)

In the course of browsing for ideas for my mangled eggnog cake, I found a recipe for gingerbread eggnog trifle, made with gingerbread for the cake.  I'll have to try that sometime...