Berry Trifle

I made a berry trifle for our father's day dinner. It's the first time I've made a trifle and I was not sure how it was going to turn out. I did not have time to make the cake that would be included so I had to resort to frozen Sarah Lee poundcake (eek! that was difficult for me to buy) and an angel food cake made by Safeway. I mixed cubes of both poundcake & angel food cake throughout the trifle. I used a mix of instant vanilla pudding mix, sweetened condensed milk, regular milk & cool whip for the cream layer. It was an idea that I got off of allrecipes.com. I don't think I would use that recipe again. It was about as thick as peanut butter and actually TOO rich. (And for something to be too rich for me is unheard of). AND it was kind of gritty - kind of like the pudding mix didn't completely dissolve. My berries of choice were a combination of raspberries & strawberries. After putting the trifle together I realized just how firm the cream layer was. This trifle was going to be too dry I determined. So I took the remainder of my raspberries & strawberries and made a kind of syrup out of them. That was the saving grace. My trifle ended up tasting like strawberry shortcake. For serving it, I'd scoop out a big bowl of the trifle & then top it with the syrup. The whole trifle was gone at the end of the night! That was amazing considering I thought I was going to dump it down the garbage disposal tomorrow. Next time I know what I'll do differently. Yeah, I will try making it again but just a bit different.