So the more popular version of this is a monster cookie, but I really love this as a cookie bar since it gives way to more textures. I kept most of the monster cookie components with the oatmeal, chocolate, peanut butter and candy. But here’s where I deviated, aside from making them a monster cookie bar, I went for a more sweet and salty combo.

Monster Cookie Bars

For the candy proportion I used Pretzel M&Ms and I traded the peanut butter spread for some mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups that I stuffed into a soft chocolate center. Framing the soft chocolate filling is a chewy chocolate chip oatmeal cookie that also contains crushed sea salt almonds and more crushed Pretzel M&Ms. The bottom framing is the same cookie mixture but as a crunchy crust. And that is what I mean when I say the cookie bar version allows for more layered textures.

It sounds like a kitchen sink cookie bar, doesn’t it? It sort of is, the only thing I didn’t throw in there that I had in the cupboard were some potato chips and toffee bits. But you can probably bet that those two things will probably end up in the next version.

For now I showed a small measure of self-restraint – this doesn’t happen often, but I wanted the bars to have a balance of sweet and salty without any one thing overpowering another.

A few notes:

• Don’t skip the browning the butter, it adds a nutty-toffee like flavor to the cookie portion that regular melted butter cannot add alone.
• This recipe is highly adaptive, so if you want a stronger peanut butter flavor just add a ¼ cup of creamy butter to the chocolate filling and omit or keep the chopped mini Reese’s cups.
• Of course skip the sea salted almonds if it’s not your thing, but I love the salty and nutty element it adds to this recipe.
• If you don’t have pretzel M&Ms, try crushed pretzels to keep the sweet and salty combo.
• To skip the salty portion of this cookie bar, omit the almonds and replace the pretzel M&Ms for regular M&Ms.
• For the chocolate filling portion I used a dark chocolate to lessen the sweetness, but your palate your preference-use a chocolate you prefer semi-sweet or dark.
• I prefer an 8x8x2 pan to make this recipe for a taller cookie bar, but a 9×13 pan will work just as well.

Monster Cookie Bar

Makes an 8×8 pan or a 9×13 pan (see notes). | Preparation: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Create a foil sling by placing foil into the pan with a one inch overhang on each side (this makes for easy removal and cutting). Alternately, cover pan with bake spray.

Ingredients:

Cookie portion (crust and topping)

• 1 cup of butter, melted and browned
• 1 cup of light brown sugar
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups quick cooking oats
• 2 eggs
• 1½ teaspoon baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ cup mini chocolate chips
• 2 cups M&M Pretzel, crushed (approximately one 2.83 oz bag)
• ½ cup sea salt almonds, chopped

Chocolate filling

• 1 cup of milk
• 14 oz. chocolate (semi-sweet or dark)
• 7 oz. sweetened condensed milk
• 2 cups mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (about one 8oz. bag)
• 2 cups M&M Pretzels (about one 2.83 oz., 2 serving bag)

Instructions:

To make cookie portion

1. Place butter in a saucepan over medium heat and melt until butter bubbles at the edge and becomes slightly brown and nutty in aroma. Set aside to cool.
2. Add flour, quick cooking oats, baking powder and baking soda into a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
3. Place brown sugar and cooled butter into a mixer bowl and beat until well blended. Add eggs in and beat until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes on medium high.
4. Turn mixer to low and slow add in flour mixture and mix until combined. Turn mixer off and fold in mini chocolate chips, crushed M&M pretzels and salted almonds.
5. Dough will be slightly wet. Set mixture aside to make filling.

To chocolate filling

1. Place milk, chocolate and sweetened condensed milk in a pan over low heat. Gently stir mixture until chocolate is melted. Remove from heat.

To assemble

1. Place 1/3 of cookie mixture into pan and using an offset spatula spread cookie mixture flat.
2. Pour chocolate filling on top of crust and then sprinkle mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and crushed M&M Pretzel on top.
3. Crumble remaining cookie mixture over chocolate filling (don’t worry if some of it sinks into the filling, it will rise to the top once baked).
4. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes or until golden brown for an 8×8 pan. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown for for a 9×13 pan. Remove from oven and let cool before cutting.

Nutella Cupcakes

To keep a balance between the chocolate and the Nutella, I did not infuse the  cupcake with Nutella but I did stuff it with a Ferrero Rocher. The frosting is where you will find your Nuttella bite of heaven.

Here’s where it becomes good for you: Good eating equals good living. Profound, I know. Good thing I can inspire eating through baking and not through writing.

Before I leave you with my inspirational quote of the day—I give you fair warning: Pipe your cupcakes quickly or else you may run the risk of piping the frosting straight into your mouth and end up with a few naked cupcakes.

A few notes:

• For the frosting I used a Swiss Merigue buttercream, but feel free to swap it out with your favorite frosting. For a visual tutorial and tips and tricks on how to make Swiss Meringue buttercream click here.
• The chocolate cupcake portion is an Alice Medrich recipe. The adaptations I made:  I added a half cup of hot coffee in place of the hot water portions.
• As always, I highly recommend Scharffen Berger’s Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder. It’s the best on the market and will make a huge difference in your baking results in terms of flavor.

Nutella Cupcakes

Makes 12 cupcakes | Preparation: Position a rack in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:

Cupcake (adapted from Alice Medrich for Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker)

•1 cup (4.5 ounces) all purpose flour
•1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (7.3 ounces) sugar
•1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons (1.5 ounces) SCHARFFEN BERGER Unsweetened Natural Cocoa Powder
•1/2 teaspoon baking soda
•1/4 teaspoon salt
•1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and warm
•2 large eggs
•1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
•2 tablespoon instant coffee (recommended: Starbucks Via)
•1/2 cup hot coffee

Nutella Buttercream Frosting:

•5 large egg whites
•11/2 cup sugar
•4 sticks unsalted butter, diced and softened
•1/4 teaspoon salt
•1 tablespoon vanilla
•1/2 cup of Nutella

Topping:

• 3 oz. chocolate, melted
• 6 Ferrero Rocher, halved

Instructions:

To make cupcakes:

1. Add flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt in a blow and mix thoroughly to combine. Add the butter, eggs, and vanilla and beat on medium speed for one minute. Add the butter and egg mixture and beat for 20 seconds. Scrape the sides of the bowl and add the hot coffee. Beat for 20-30 seconds until the batter is smooth. The batter will be thin enough to pour. Divide it evenly among the lined cups. Place a whole Ferrero Rochero in the center of each well. Bake 18-22 minutes just until a toothpick inserted into a few of the cupcakes comes out clean. Set the pan on a rack to cool. Frost the cupcakes when they are completely cool.

To make frosting:

1. Combine egg whites and sugar in a stand mixer bowl and place it over (not on) simmering water. Heat mixture to 160 degrees F while whisking constantly.
2. Transfer mixer bowl to stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment and beat on medium high speed until mixture cools, doubles in volume and forms stiff peaks; about 10-12 minutes.
3. Add butter in one piece at a time, mixing to incorporate after each addition. The mixture may appear clumpy and almost curdled looking at first—this is normal. Keep mixing and it will become even and smooth again.
4. Add salt and vanilla mix to combine. Set aside 3/4 cup of frosting for the vanilla portion of the frosting.
5. Add Nutella remaining frosting and mix to combine 

To assemble:

1. Fit first first pastry with a large round tip and fill with Nutella frosting. Hold Nutella filled pastry bag directly on top of cupcake and squeeze to cover cupcake. Place melted chocolate in a plastic bag and cut a small hole in the corner and squeeze and drizzle on top of Nutella frosting. Fill second pastry bag fitted with Wilton’s  1M tip and pipe in a circular motion. Top with halved Ferrero Rochero.

Strawberry Shortcake Bars

Last week was real light on the posting since I was busy taking care of a kid who came home sick and feverish. Honestly, he never complains and since he had intermittent spurts of energy, I really thought he was faking it to get out of going to school for the next day.

As it turns it out he had massive, disgusting barnacle-like sores growing on his throat, from . . . are you ready – hand, foot and mouth disease. Gross. And of course I felt terrible for not knowing how sick he truly was. My guilt finally passed once his sickness did, so now that we are both better I’m back to baking.

A few notes:

• I placed fresh cut strawberries throughout the cheesecake, but feel free to skip this or replace the strawberries with raspberries. Next time I will be doing just that – replacing the strawberries for raspberries. The strawberries became a little too soft for my prefernce.
• I added a little dry cake mix into my streusel for added flavor, but again, feel free to skip this as well.
• Feel free to replace the cake mix in the cheesecake filling for all purpose flour.

Strawberry Shortcake Bars

Makes one 8×8 pan. | Preparation: Cover inside of pan with enough foil for a one inch overhang on all sides. Cover foil with bake spray. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Ingredients

Crust

• 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 8 tablespoons of butter

Cheesecake Filling

• 6 oz strawberries, pureed (about 1 cup of whole strawberries)
• 4 oz banana, pureed (about 1 whole banana)
• 12 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons of dry yellow cake

Streusel

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup dry yellow cake mix
• 4 tablespoons of butter (1/2 stick)
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 salt

Instructions:

To make crust

1.Place graham cracker crust and sugar in a bowl and toss to combine. Add in melted butter and mix to combine. Press mixture onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool while making cheesecake portion.

To make cheesecake

1. Place strawberries and banana in a blender or food processor and pulse until pureed; set aside. Place cheesecake, sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a bowl and beat until fully combined and smooth. Add in pureed strawberry mixture and mix to combine. Add in dry cake mix and mix to combine.
2. Pour mixture over crust (optional add in whole fruit to cheesecake mixture) and bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees F. Make streusel while cheesecake bakes.
3. Remove pan from oven after 30-35 minutes and sprinkle streusel on top. Return pan to oven and bake for another 12-15 minutes. Remove and cool shortcake bars before cutting.

To make streusel

1. Place all ingredients in and using a pastry blender or a fork, cut butter into dry ingredients until mixture resembles crumbled wet sand.

Sex on the Beach

The other version of this drink uses pineapple and Chambord instead of orange juice and peach schnapps. For these Sex on the Beach popsicles I kept the pineapple body and skipped the cranberry juice for crushed raspberries and changed out the Chambord for my new obsession Pama, a pomegrante liqueur. Hit the jump to Endless Simmerfor the recipe.

If you are wondering if all the flavors come through distinctly like in a sort of layered way – I will tell you, the strawberry comes through the first and is slightly stronger than the other two flavors.

That might have more to do with the flavoring behind the strawberry. There are a few consideration to keep in mind when making a making a neapolitan cake, that is unless you just make a vanilla cake and then dye the pink layer with food coloring. But if you decide you want a strawberry flavor then things start to get a little more complicated, especially if you use pureed strawberries. The strawberries add an element of density and heaviness to the batter that will make it bake slower than the vanilla portion. Then there’s the chocolate portion, you can create it with a sauce or with some cocoa powder. If you go with the sauce, it will impact the bake time to a greater degree than if you use cocoa powder. Keep in mind these things only come into play if you are trying to acheive a Neapolitan effect in one pan. These considerations go away when you bake each layer separately, but I wasn’t, I wanted a Neapolitan zebra cake not a layered Neapolitan cake.

Keeping the density of the batter in mind, I decided I would avoid that by flavoring the strawberry portion with what most strawberry cake recipes use: Strawberry Jell-o. It worked! All the three components baked evenly- the vanilla, the chocolate flavored with natural cocoa powder, the strawberry with the strawberry gelatin.

A few notes:

• The strawberry and vanilla layer has a tendency to blend in together, so make sure to separate the two by the chocolate. I discovered that after I cut into the cake as you can see.
• If you don’t have cottage cheese on hand, just swap out that portion for butter.
• Use a small ice cream scoop with a lever release handle for ease when layering the batter. I used an ice cream scoop that is about a two tablespoon capacity. (Click here for a quick visual on how to layer the batter for a zebra effect.)
• The cake can be stored at room temperature for 1-2 days in a tightly sealed container.

Neapolitan Zebra Bundt Cake

Makes 1 10 cup bundt cake | Preparation: Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover pan with bake spray and dust with flour. Lightly tap pan to remove any excess flour.

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cups butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
• 8 oz. 4 percent cottage cheese, pureed
• 3 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 6 eggs
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup of Strawberry Jell-o mix
• 1/3 cup of natural cocoa powder

Glaze

• 1/2 cups, powder sugar
• 2 tablespoon milk

Instructions:

1. Place butter in a saucepan over low heat to melt; set aside to cool. Place cottage cheese in a food processor or blender and pulse until pureed and no lumps remain; set aside.
2. Fit stand mixer with a paddle attachment and add melted butter and sugar into stand mixer bowl. Mix on medium-low for 1 minute or until well combined. Add in pureed cottage cheese and mix on medium for about 2 minutes until well combined and light. Add in vanilla and salt and mix until well combined. While mixer is running, add eggs in one at time and mix well after each addition. Turn mixer down to low and keep mixer running while gradually adding in flour.
3. Divide batter evenly among three bowls. In one bowl add 1/4 cup of Strawberry Jell-o and mix until combined. In a second bow add 1/3 cup of natural cocoa powder and mix until combined. Using an ice cream, drop a scoopful of vanilla batter into prepared bundt pan. Then drop a scoop of chocolate batter onto the vanilla layer. Follow that up by dropping a scoop of strawberry batter on top of chocolate layer. Continue this alternating sequence until each batter bowl is empty.
4. Place filled bundt pan into the oven and bake at 350 degrees F or until a toothpick inserted comes out almost clean, approximately 60-70 minutes. Allow cake to cool in pan for 5 minutes. Turn out cake onto a cooling rack with topside down. Cool completely before glazing.

To make glaze:

1. Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine . Pour glaze on top of cooled cake.

Swiss Meringue Buttercream

By minor variation, I mean the ratio of egg whites to sugar and the amount of butter. Along with that, there is also some variation on the temperature of when the egg white and sugar syrup is ready for whipping. That said, I’ve outlined the ingredients and tools used to make Swiss meringue buttercream and what works for me and provided some links to support it.

Temperature: I bring my egg whites to 160 degrees. I have never gone as low as 140 degrees F as Epicurious suggests. I did at one time use 150 degrees F as Martha Stewart does, but nowadays, I heat my egg whites to 160 degrees F.
At one time I thought I discovered something by accidentally taking my eggs whites all the way to 160 degrees F without compromise to the end result. By accident I mean, I was making meringue and Tweeting – don’t be like me. Multi-tasking and heating eggs usually results in scrambled eggs. In any case, a few weeks ago I was reading The Baker’s Dozen and there was a recipe from my favorite baker, Alice Medrich, instructing meringue to be taken to that exact temperature. My accident was only a new discovery to me.

The 160 degrees F is Alice’s Safe Meringue featured in her book “Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts” of course this is the one of two books I do not own hers. (If it isn’t already obvious, the word low-fat in the title nixed it for me.) Her Safe Meringue recipe is also featured in another one of my favorites, Shirley Corriher’s, “BakeWise: The Hows and Whys of Successful Baking“. If you haven’t read this-you need to! Go checkout it out at the library or better yet – buy it, read it, dog ear it and mark it up with notes. I think you can feel good about the safety of egg whites at that temperature if a biochemist like Shirley features Alice’s recipe in her book.

*Thermometer: Is it necessary? That depends on where you fall on the safeness of eating egg whites. To be on the safe side, if you don’t have a thermometer use pasteurized egg whites and use the finger method to test for readiness.
The finger method is simply rubbing the egg and sugar mixture between your fingers to feel for sugar grit. If it’s smooth, then the egg white mixture is ready for beating. If it feels sandy or gritty, keep whisking the mixture until it is smooth.

Egg whites and what type: I have used pasteurized egg whites, but I couldn’t achieve the same fluffy light texture as when freshly separated egg whites are used. Full disclosure: I tried it twice and didn’t like the results, so I never went back to it. But that means nothing. It’s better if you test the two for yourself to see what your preference is. You should check out what Rosie of Sweetapolita has to say about her experience with it. She also has an excellent post on the same subject, titled “Swiss Meringue Buttercream Demystified“.

Sugar: Don’t bother using expensive baking sugar. Regular granulated sugar will work fine since it will quickly be heated to a liquid state.

Beating the egg white and sugar syrup to a meringue state: The time it takes to beat the egg white and sugar syrup into meringue may vary slightly from what is in the recipe based on different types of mixers used. For a more tactile indication of readiness the meringue should be warm to the touch. If not, the butter will melt. The visual indication will be stiff peaks that form when the whisk is pulled up out of the meringue.

Butter: The butter needs to be at room temperature, softened. The best visual description I’ve read is from Alice of Savory Sweet Life’s excellent post on “Classic Buttercream Frosting” – “The texture should be similar to ice cream, soft enough to scoop but firm enough to hold it’s shape.” When cutting the butter into pieces, I just roughly cut it to the tablespoon marking on the wrapper.

Ratio: In terms of ratio, I prefer mine at 1 egg white for 2.1 oz of sugar and 3.2 oz of butter. If you don’t have a scale it works out to about a 1/3 cup of sugar to every egg white. If do measure by cups your ratio will be slightly over by 1/2  an ounce, but it won’t matter for this recipe. For the butter it will be about 61/2 tablespoonfor every egg white.

Flavoring: This buttercream is highly adaptable to flavoring by extract or by sauces, eg. melted chocolate, melted white chocolate, caramel, dulce de leche, fruit curds and more. I generally add a 1/3 cup or more of sauce for every batch and extracts vary from 1/2 teaspoon to more. Taste as you go, just remember it’s always easier to add more flavoring than to reduce the flavoring.

Coloring: Start slow—it’s always easier to add more color than to correct the color. How much to add depends on the brand and the color. I generally start with one to two drops (one drop if I’m unfamiliar with the color), then mix it well and add from there as needed. Make sure as you add the color you are squeezing the drops out onto a spoon not over the bowl to have better control.

Trouble shooting: This portion addresses some of the questions and issues I have received regarding the Swiss meringue buttercream.

My Swiss meringue buttercream is soupy.

• Most of the time you just need to keep mixing. On the occasion when that does not work, to correct the “soupy” texture just add a few tablespoons of chilled butter and it will help to stiffen up the buttercream.

My Swiss meringue buttercream is curdled.

• This is normal. Continue to beat for about another 3 minutes and a smooth creamy texture will result.

Can I use this frosting for a wedding taking place outdoor in the summer?

• I don’t recommend it for hot summer days or any place in which the Swiss meringue buttercream will be exposed to direct sunlight for longer than an 1-2 hours. My experience has been that the Swiss meringue buttercream starts to lose its fluffy light texture and begins to feel more like softened butter when consumed. Along with that, the nice satin-like finish moves towards an oily appearance that resembles very softened butter.

Basic Swiss Meringue Buttercream Elements:

• Basic tools: Whisk, bowl, thermometer* (see note above), bain marie – you can create your own by placing a your mixer bowl containing the egg whites and sugar over a saucepan with simmering water. Do not let the water touch the bottom of the bowl or it will overheat the eggs into a scrambled state.
• How to store Swiss meringue buttercream: Place it in a tightly sealed containter and refrigerate it up to one week or place it in the freezer for up to a month.
• How to re-heat Swiss meringue buttercream: Place Swiss meringue buttercream on the counter and let it come to room temperature-do not microwave it. Once it comes to room temperature place it in a mixing bowl and whip it for a few minutes or until it becomes light and fluffy once more.

Rolo Cheesecake Bars

A few days ago I Instagramed a mini bag of Rolos asking you guys what I should do with them. Well I got back Rolo stuffed brownies, but I already did that here. So after eating almost half a bag of them, I realized I better start baking.

Thankfully, the remainder of what was left in the bag made into the pan. Although, I’m sure calorie-wise, I would have been better off just finishing them in the raw—that is, before I wrapped those mini morsels in fat and butter. But seriously, more “fat and butter” makes everything better and this is no exception. Enjoy!

A few notes:

• For a less sweet and deeper caramel cheesecake flavor use homemade caramel sauce as store bought caramel sauce tends to be overly sweet. Click here for a step-by-step picture tutorial to making homemade caramel sauce.
• If you are unable to find mini Rolos, just chop regular Rolos in half. Or for a variation replace the caramel portion with peanut butter and fold in Snickers instead of Rolos.
• To easily cut the cheesecake into bars, heat knife with hot water so that it slightly melts through the chocolate (this will prevent the chocolate from cracking). Clean knife between cuts for clean edges.

Rolo Cheesecake Bars

Makes one 8×8 pan | Preparation: Cover inside of pan with enough foil for a one inch overhang on all sides. Cover foil with bake spray. Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Ingredients:

Crust

• 1 1/2 cups of graham cracker crumbs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 8 tablespoons of butter

Cheesecake

• 1 8oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1/3 cup caramel sauce
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup mini Rolos

Chocolate Layer

• 10oz. chocolate, 65% cacao
• 2 teaspoons corn syrup
• 8 tablespoons butter
• 4-5 tablespoon caramel sauce

Instructions:

To make crust

1. Place graham cracker crust and sugar in a bowl and toss to combine. Add in melted butter and mix to combine. Press mixture onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 7-10 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside to cool while making cheesecake portion.

To make cheesecake

1. Place cheesecake, caramel sauce, sugar, egg and vanilla extract in a bowl and beat until fully combined and smooth. Add in Rolos and fold to combine. Pour mixture over crust and bake for 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees F. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

To make chocolate layer

1. Place alchocolate, corn syrup and butter  in a heat proof bowl over (not on) simmering water), gently stir until chocolate is melted and all ingredients are fully combined. Pour chocolate over baked cheesecake.
2. Place caramel in a plastic bag and pipe straight lines horizontally across. Use a toothpick and starting at the top drag the toothpick vertically through horizontal lines. Draw second line with toothpick start in the opposite direction (from the bottom of the pan) and drag it vertically from bottom to top of pan. Continue to alternate starting points for the vertical lines drawn with the toothpick.

Strawberry Lemonade Trifles

I had planned on making this into a cake but I realized someone accidentally threw away my cake helpers-ahem, Matt.

The cake will come next week, but for now I’m sharing a fast and easy dessert that can be served chilled or at room temperature.

A few notes:

• To shortcut the recipe use ready made poundcake instead of homemade.
• To shortcut the recipe further, you can skip the homemade whipping cream and use all Cool Whip. I used a hybrid of both because I didn’t have enough heavy cream on hand. Alternately, you can use all homemade whipping cream by using 3 cups of heavy cream and 1 cup of sugar.
• Click here for a step-by-step tutorial to making homemade lemon curd.
• Trifles are best eaten the day they are made.

Strawberry Lemonade Trifle

Makes six 6oz. trifles

Ingredients:

• 1 10.75oz poundcake
• 16 oz. strawberries

Lemonade Whipping Cream

• 1 cup lemon curd
• 2 cups cool whip
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/3 cup sugar

Instructions:

1. Slice poundcake into 1/4 inch slices and stamp out circles. Alternately, slice and dice poundcake. Set aside.
2. Slice strawberries and set aside.

To make lemonade whipping cream

1. Place Cool Whip and lemon curd in a bowl and fold to combine. Set aside.
2. Place heavy whipping cream and sugar into chilled bowl and beat until medium peaks form.
3. Fold whip cream mixture into Cool Whip mixture and fold to combine.

Assembly:

1. Place poundcake in the bottom of the glass. Layer strawberries on top of poundcake. Then layer lemonade whipping cream on top of strawberry. Continue to layer until top of the glass rim is reached. Finish trifle with more lemonade whipping cream. Garnish with strawberry.

Grapefruit and Strawberry Greyhound Popsicle

 
For those of you who are new to the series, here are few of my favorites from last year.  To see more just click on the Cocktail Popsicle category in the right-hand column.

Cocktail Popsicles 2011

Honeydew and Cucumber Margarita, Fig and Clementine Port Wine, Bourbon Peaches and Cream, Cherry Apple Whiskey Sour, Bloody Mary Popsicle, Blackberry Prosecco, Lychee and Raspberry Saketini, White and Black Russian Pudding Pops, Strawberry and Peach Vodka Collins, Dirty Pirate, Watermelon Mojito, Corona Beer Pops 

As usual the recipe resides over at Endless Simmer. Hit the jump to grab the Grapefruit and Strawberry Greyhound recipe.