Trifle is a great dessert to use leftover cakes, brownies or muffins! Make layers of crumbled cake, custard or pudding and whipped cream. Super easy and so yummy!
If you like light and easy desserts with layers like this, go check out our fruit and yogurt parfait too!

Wasting food is not my kind of thing and I always try to find new ways to use up leftover foods. Since two of us can’t finish cakes, there are always some bags with leftover cakes in our freezer. This makes things easier too! When you need to make something sweet in a quick way, it’s great to know that you have some frozen leftover cakes.

Don't Waste Leftover Cakes!
A great way to use up leftover cake is to make trifle, which is a great dessert to serve in Spring or Summer. If you have leftover cake and pudding, the rest is up to you! You can add in your favorite fruit or chocolate or candies into it! Since we are enjoying sunny days here these days, trifle sounds like a better choice to use up my leftover cakes this time.

Well, I have been making this kind of dessert with different fruits and puddings for years, but I didn’t know that it has a special name. When searching for English translations of some ingredients in this dessert, I found that it is called trifle. I loved this name! I would call it layered pudding or something if I hadn’t found this name.
I had two kinds of leftover cakes in the freezer; one was chocolate cake and the other was lemon cake. So I made my trifle with two of them layered.
I didn’t have to work much on this dessert. I just made a vanilla pudding –I didn’t use instant pudding mix. Vanilla pudding between cake layers sounds yummy, doesn’t it? As for the topping, I used a kind of cream we call krem santi, which is a powedered cream mixed with cold milk. This is the cream in Turkey to use for such toppings. I think whipped cream makes a good substitute for it. Adding strawberries and sprinkles on the very top is the fun part!

So you can make this easy peasy dessert with your favorite ingredients when you have leftover cakes!
Trifle with Leftover Cakes
A perfect trifle to use up leftover cakes!
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Cooking
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 1 cup chocolate cake, crumbled (or any leftover cake you have)
- 1 cup lemon cake, crumbled (or any leftover cake you have)
Vanilla pudding:
- 2 and ½ cup milk
- 2 tbsp corn starch
- 3 tbsp sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla
Topping:
- 1 cup frozen whipped cream, thawed
- 12 strawberries
- 2 tbsp sprinkles
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients for vanilla pudding and cook it stirring occasionally until it thickens.
- Let it cold.
- Layer glasses or bowls first with 1 tablespoon plain cake, then pudding, then chocolate cake.
- Top it with whipped cream.
- Place a strawberry on the very top and add sprinkles.
- Cool it in refrigerator for 1 hour before serving.
Nutrition
- Serving Size:
- Calories: 107
- Sugar: 7.6 g
- Sodium: 67.2 mg
- Fat: 4.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 16.8 g
- Protein: 2.9 g
- Cholesterol: 27.8 mg
Keywords: leftover cake trifle, trifles with leftover cakes
Reeni says
I love the image that formed in my head of your freezer full of leftover cakes! Such a scrumptious way to use them up Zerrin! A feast for the eyes.
lisaiscooking says
This is a great idea for leftover cake! Your dessert cups looks so pretty with the layers of the trifles, and the strawberries are fabulous on top.
Zerrin says
Thank you Lisa! I become happy when we have leftover cake now! I know what to make with them!
Rosa says
A great idea. That is a speciality I love. Your individual trifles look divine.
Cheers,
Rosa
Zerrin says
Thank you Rosa! Don't they look lovely in our typical Turkish tea glasses?
Ozlem's Turkish Table says
yummy Zerrin! living in England, trifle is one of my favorite desserts, with a rice rich custard - loved the look of yours 🙂
Zerrin says
The ones with rice custard sounds scrumptious! Perfect summer dessert, isn't it?
Wendy says
Great idea, Zerrin. I love trifle. Yours looks so pretty no one would believe that you made them with left over cake! They look like company dessert to me. 🙂
Zerrin says
Thank you Wendy!Leftover cakes shouldn't be wasted, right?