This Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle recipe is the perfect, easy, delicious dessert recipe for fall entertaining.
Have you ever made a trifle? I know it sounds fancy, but I promise you it’s not. Traditionally, a trifle is an English dessert- layered fruit, liquor-soaked cake and cream in a glass dish. In modern times, the trifle has turned into any layered dessert with cake and cream served in a trifle dish.
This Pumpkin Gingerbread trifle is layers of gingerbread, pumpkin pie filling and whipped cream. Gingersnaps are added on top for garnish. It’s such a delicious combination of flavors– especially for entertaining in the fall. It’s full of fun holiday flavors!
How to make Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle:
First, bake the gingerbread and set it aside to cool. Next you’ll make some instant vanilla pudding and then add pumpkin pie filling, brown sugar and cinnamon to it.
To assemble the layers in the trifle dish, you’ll crumble half of the gingerbread into the bottom of the bowl. Then you’ll add half of your pumpkin pie filling as your next layer- then half of the whipped topping. Layer each of those one more time, and then put some crumbled gingersnaps on top. That’s it!
About the gingerbread and the gingersnaps:
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This recipe calls for using boxed gingerbread. Betty Crocker sells a brand that is perfectly good to use (or another brand is fine too). You’ll need gingersnaps too- nothing fancy. Nabisco makes a good brand of gingersnaps, but you can certainly use another brand if you’d like.
What’s a trifle bowl, and do I have to use one?
A trifle bowl is a tall glass bowl suspended by a glass footer. It’s traditionally the perfect vessel to serve a trifle in because you can easily see the attractive layers of the dessert from the side of the glass bowl. Here is a classic, inexpensive trifle bowl that you can buy online. If you don’t wish to buy a trifle bowl for this recipe, it’s perfectly okay to use another glass bowl. And if you don’t care about seeing the layers or a pretty presentation, you can use a regular, non-glass bowl too.
Can this Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle be made ahead?
Yes! Prepare it in the morning, and serve it later in the day or in the evening. Add the gingersnap cookies just before serving.
For serving, just take a large spoon and scoop out servings into small bowls. It’s not a super pretty dessert to serve, but you can make it prettier by adding crumbled gingersnaps on top. And no one cares anyway because this dessert is so darn good!
Here are a few more trifle recipes you might like to try:
- Red Velvet Cake Trifle
- Layered Berry Trifle
- Mint Brownie- Hot Fudge Oreo Trifle
- English Trifle
- No Bake Patriotic Hot Fudge Cheesecake Trifles
- Mini Triple Chocolate Trifles
- Lemon Lovers Trifle
- Layered Strawberry Trifle
Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle
Equipment
- Trifle Dish
Ingredients
- One 14-ounce package gingerbread mix
- One 3-ounce box instant vanilla pudding mix
- One 15-ounce can sweetened pumpkin pie filling (not the puree)
- 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- One 6-ounce tub frozen whipped topping, thawed
- 1/2 cup broken gingersnap cookies (for garnish), optional
Instructions
- Bake the gingerbread according to package directions; cool completely.
- Meanwhile, in a large bowl prepare the pudding according to the package directions. Stir the pumpkin pie filling, sugar, and cinnamon into the pudding.
- Crumble 1/2 of the gingerbread into the bottom of a trifle bowl or another medium-sized glass 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 the top with crushed gingersnaps, if desired. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or serve immediately.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made this for company on New Year’s Day. Rave reviews from all. This beats the pumpkin cake I’ve been making for years. Super easy to make and very impressive looking.
I made 2 small triffles instead of one…. the first one I made my home made whip cream I added 1/2 cup Patron Café Tequila to the whip cream mixture and added all layers as per recipe. the second trifle I saturated each layer of the crumbled ginger cake with bourbon added one layer of the filling then added one layer of homemade non-alcohol whip cream and repeated until finished all ingredients…