I have never before made a trifle. I went out and bought a cheap plastic bowl to make this one in as I didn’t even have a bowl for it. I also, as I have mentioned many times, altered the recipe I found to make myself happy.
First off, I made my own gingerbread.
Gingerbread
From The Betty Crocker Cookbook (published in the mid to late 1970’s)
1 ½ cups all purpose, unbleached flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
¼ cup sugar
1 cup molasses
¾ cup hot water
½ cup shortening
1 egg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon salt
Heat oven to 325F. Grease and flour square pan, 9”x9”x2”. Beat all ingredients in large mixer bowl on low speed, scraping bowl constantly, 30 seconds. Beat on medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, 3 minutes. Pour into pan. (I used a round pan as that was what I had available)
Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.
I left this to cool overnight and put the trifle together on Thanksgiving morning. The original trifle recipe is from Food Network’s Paula Deen. As you will see, hers looks much nicer than mine does.
Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle
Ingredients
- 1 recipe gingerbread
- 1 box instant French vanilla pudding mix
- 1 (30-ounce) can pumpkin pie filling
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping
- 1/2 cup gingersnaps, optional
Directions
Bake the gingerbread according to the recipe; cool completely. Meanwhile, prepare the pudding and set aside to cool. Stir the pumpkin pie filling, sugar, and cardamom into the pudding. Crumble ½ recipe of gingerbread into the bottom of a large, pretty bowl. Pour 1/2 of the pudding mixture over the gingerbread, then add a layer of whipped topping. Repeat with the remaining gingerbread, pudding, and whipped topping. Sprinkle of the top with crushed gingersnaps, if desired. Refrigerate overnight. Trifle can be layered in a punch bowl.
Nicki's Nook 
So you don’t cook the pumpkin pie mix?
No cooking the pie mix. I would have cooked it if I had made it myself from scratch but I was running out of time. Canned pumpkin pie mix it was and the kids loved it.