Bled For You

So, it’s Easter and Mark and I are finishing up the taxes. OUCH!!!! This year is especially painful as Mark’s new job did not withhold enough money to cover the taxes on his income, let alone my taxes in a higher bracket than CSU expects for grad students, plus we evidently made a wad of cash on our investments last year that we were less aware of than we thought. So, the IRS is bleeding us for a couple thousand extra on this snowy Easter Sunday.

While Mark was grumbling and cussing and rifling through papers this afternoon, I decided to have a little kitchen adventure, and I put together an appropriate desert for the day. Enjoy!

Bleeding Strawberry Trifle

1 quart fresh strawberries, sliced
1/3 cup good balsamic vinegar

2 cups heavy cream
1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 fresh pound cake
1/3 cup Amaretto liqueur

In a small shallow dish, coat the strawberries with the balsamic vinegar and marinade them in the fridge for at least 15 to 20 minutes (in my case, and hour or two until we get around to making dinner). After the strawberries have marinated, check for sweetness, adding sugar if desired.

In a large bowl using an electric mixer, whisk the cream to soft peaks. Add the vanilla and confectioners’ sugar. Whip until stiff peaks. Set aside.

Using a serrated knife, slice pound cake lengthwise into 1/2-inch thick slices. Carefully cut out a small circle for the bottom of each of the martini glasses. Place small circle in the bottom of the glass and brush cakes Amaretto liqueur. Take a sip of Amaretto liqueur. Add a layer of marinated strawberries. Sprinkle with more sugar if desired. Add a layer of whipped cream.

Add a second layer of cake, this one will be much larger than the first. If your pound cake is shaped like mine, you just put in a whole piece and then knock the corners off. Brush with lots of Amaretto liqueur. Take another sip of the Amaretto. Add another layer of marinated strawberries. Top with a very large dollop of whipped cream. I garnished with small corners of strawberries in the whipped cream. Some recipes recommend amaretto cookie crumbs or mint leaves to garnish.

You can stick these in the refrigerator until serving. Also, use the remaining cake, cream and strawberries to create a few extra, not-as-pretty trifle dishes. If you refrigerate for at least 2 hours, the flavors can marry and it makes everything especially tasty.