The past weekend we made Valentine Day Brownies or Brownie Hearts as Madison likes to call them. After we made our hearts we still had a lot of pieces left over so decided to be spontaneous and made another recipe. We just love brownies in our house and using the box mix made it so much easier. While it’s great to make it from scratch, sometimes its just as good buying a good old box mix and saving yourself some time. I decided on these Cherry Cheesecake Brownie Trifles and I have to say that everyone loved them. I do have an update to share with you in regards to my recipes moving forward. It takes a LOT of time to photograph and edit ingredients and in-process pics, so unless it’s some very complicated recipe, I think we will now only be sharing our finished product. The Cherry Cheesecake Brownie Trifle was a hit with everyone and I’m sure it will be a hit with your family as well.
Cherry Cheesecake Brownie Trifles
Ingredients
1 boxed brownie mix + box ingredients
2 cups whipped topping
8-ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 cup chopped cherries
Instructions
Cook the brownie mix according to the directions on the package. Let cool and break into bite-size pieces. ** see note
Add the cream cheese and the powdered sugar to a mixing bowl. Use a fork to work in the powdered sugar, and then use a hand mixer to mix until smooth and creamy.
Add the whipped topping to the cream cheese mixture. Using a large spatula, fold the ingredients until completely combined. Do this gently so you don’t deflate the whipped cream.
Add the cherries and stir until just combined.
To make the trifle, add the cheesecake filling to a Ziploc baggie and cut off the end of one corner. Be sure to cut it large enough for the bits of cherries to fit through.
Pipe the cheesecake filling into the bottom of your serving dishes.
Next add some brownies pieces, and then top it with a little more cheesecake filling.
Grate a little dark chocolate over the top before serving.
Notes:
The cherries give the cheesecake filling a beautiful pink color. We love this, because the color is natural without having to use food dye!
Since cherries aren’t in season, we used frozen cherries for this. Frozen cherries release a lot of liquid, so be sure to thaw them completely, drain them well, and blot them dry before adding them to the cheesecake filling. Don’t throw away the cherry juice! You can use that in smoothies, or anything you want to give a beautiful pink color.
To make this quick and easy, we used store-bought whipped topping, but you could also make your own. Just be sure to sweeten it if you choose to do this.
Also, we made mini trifles, but you could make any size you want. You could even make one large trifle!
** You will not use the whole pan of brownies for this, so you can either snack on what’s left or freeze them for another recipe in the future.
