Threesome

Easter with my side of the family today.  I was in charge of dessert.  It is an extra special day.  Eric's birthday.  I decided to make a trifle.  I love this dessert because it goes a long way and is so versatile.  You can go with chocolate or berries or caramel or fruit or a combo of these.  Make it up as you go and whistle while you work.  The word trifle stems from the idea of using three (hence the prefix 'tri') ingredients in a layered fashion.  They are almost always displayed in a pretty bowl with a foot, otherwise known as a 'trifle bowl'.  The bowl is clear, so one can revel at the lovely layers awaiting them.  Any large, deep bowl will suffice.  Enough of the definitions and details, now back to Eric's big day.  Eric is not a fan of chocolate.  He'll eat it if he is backed in a corner, but it would not be his choice, if given one.  I, on the other hand, would eat chocolate in the corner, at the table, on the roof-you get the picture.  I happen to like chocolate, but let's face it-it's not my special day.  It's Eric's.  I made a vanilla, lemon pound cake and I made it in a bundt pan.  It gives me practice on the art of "releasing" a perfect bundt cake and if it does not cooperate and ends up a crumpled mess, no one is the wiser because that's perfect for the trifle.  Needless to say, it did not cooperate.  No harm.  I cubed up the cake and started with this as the bottom layer.  I made fresh lemon curd.  Now this is a real treat.  Bright and sunny in your mouth, bursting with freshness.  Take 3 eggs and 3 egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, the zest of 1 lemon and 1/2 cup lemon juice, put them in a double boiler and whisk like you are half nuts.  Don't stop or you will scramble your eggs-not pretty.  It will start to foam and then get creamy and thicken.  Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in 2 sticks of cold unsalted butter (cut up in small pieces).  The heat from the mixture will slowly melt the butter as you continue to whisk.  Put the finished curd through a fine mesh sieve to remove any bits of eggs that may have scrambled.  I cooled the lemon curd over night with saran wrap over it (touching the surface, so a skin doesn't form).  This morning I whipped up 2 cups of cold whipping cream with a splash of vanilla coffee syrup (my secret weapon to sweeten whipping cream, so it doesn't get grainy from the sugar).  I folded the lemon curd into the fresh whipped, sweetened cream and this became lovely layer number two, now lemon mousse.  On top of that I put a generous layer of raspberries.  I actually found some really nice frozen berries, for a good price-and it worked beautifully.  The price of fresh raspberries is ridiculous, and I love Eric a whole bunch, but lets get real.  Then another layer of cake, another layer of lemon mousse and the final topping of beautiful raspberries.  It was very tasty, even coming from a girl that loves chocolate.  So, another birthday gone by.  Happy birthday Eric, happy birthday to you.  I would have splurged on fresh berries, but frozen worked too.