Death by Chocolate Trifle

Layers of dense dark chocolate brownies, rich and creamy chocolate filling, diced candy bars, freshly whipped cream and crushed Oreos. The perfect dessert to celebrate Halloween!

This Saturday is Halloween, AKA, the one time of year where it’s totally acceptable to encourage your children to take candy from complete strangers. AND the one time of year where children are ALLOWED to get completely sugar-wasted and bounce off the walls late into the night.

At least, if you’re the fun parent…

Although it’s been many, many, many, many, MANY years since I’ve trick-or-treated…ok, maybe it hasn’t been that long. I’ll be honest, I trick-or-treated right up to the month before I turned 18.

What? The law DOES state that you’re not considered a legal adult until you turn 18, so…

I definitely would’ve gone through my college years had it not been for my lame-o friends who thought we were “too old”. Excuse me?! Since when is someone “too old” for free candy?? Heck, I STILL contemplate wearing a mask and hoping the neighbors won’t recognize that it’s actually a 27-year old woman (I prefer young lady) dressed as a teenage mutant ninja turtle. 

I repeat, FREE CANDY, PEOPLE!!!

I guess not everyone shares my unhealthy childlike obsession with all things sweet.

If you’re not a crazy candy fiend like me, maybe I’ll be able to sway you with this Death By Chocolate Trifle…

Don’t worry. You won’t actually DIE after eating this. Though your tastebuds might be in Heaven after experiencing this chocolate overload of a dessert. (Yes, I know that sounded sickeningly cheesy.)

I say “chocolate overload”, because it has FIVE times the chocolate. Yes, FIVE!!! Let’s take a tour through the layers, shall we?

Starting from the bottom, we have rich cubes of chewy and ultra dense brownie. I actually made a boxed Devil’s Food Cake Mix into brownies by using a few different ingredients to get that dense, fudgy brownie texture. This was mostly because I thought it would by cute to use “Devil’s” Food Cake brownies in a “Death by Chocolate Trifle”. See what I did there? 😉

Of course, you could easily substitute your own made-from-scratch brownie recipe, if it’s against your religion to use boxed cake mixes, or something…

The next layer is a lusciously thick and creamy chocolate filling. Super rich. Super creamy. And most importantly, super easy to make.

The third chocolatey layer of death is a mixed assortment of chopped up candy bars. Feel free to use any of your favorite candy bars or chocolates for this layer. Being that Snickers is my favorite candy bar, I went with a healthy mix of Snickers, Snickers Almond, and Snickers PB Squared bars. I also threw in a few Milky Way Simply Caramels because caramel and I are BFFs.

After a second layer of brownies and chocolate filling, I topped it off with a fluffy cloud of freshly whipped cream. But we’re not done yet. In fact, we still have two more pieces of the chocolate puzzle to discuss.

Just like the title states, this is a “Death by Chocolate” trifle, hence the chocolate graveyard scene on top. To make the chocolate “dirt”, I simply crushed up some Oreos in my food processor and sprinkled them generously on top. This can also be done with a large ziploc bag, a rolling pin, and some of that road rage you get when someone abruptly cuts in front of you without using their turn signal. 

For the fifth and final chocolate piece of the puzzle, I made some cute milk chocolate gravestones as well as chocolate “BOO” lettering. If you’re wondering how I made the “BOO” letters stick up out of the trifle, I placed three 8″ skewers on a wax paper-lined baking sheet, and piped the melted chocolate (from a small ziploc bag with the tip cut off) on top of the skewers. For extra hold and stability, I piped some additional melted chocolate onto the backside of the lettering just along the skewer once the first side side had set.

And in case you were wondering, those aren’t the names of my ex-boyfriends.

Although the thought did cross my mind…

Death by Chocolate Trifle

Layers of dense dark chocolate brownies, rich and creamy chocolate filling, diced candy bars, freshly whipped cream, and crushed Oreos. The perfect dessert to celebrate Halloween!

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Prep Time 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 22 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 52 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings 12 Servings

Ingredients

  

• 1 box Devil's Food cake mix
• 1 (3.4 oz) box instant chocolate pudding mix (dry)
• ½ cup butter melted
• ⅓ cup yogurt or sour cream
• 2 eggs

For the Filling

• 2 cups heavy cream
• ½ cup powdered sugar
• 8 ounces cream cheese softened
• 1 ¾ cups milk
• 1 (5.9 oz) box instant chocolate pudding mix (dry)

For Decoration

• 3 cups chopped chocolate bars of your choice*
• 12 Oreos finely crushed
• Melted chocolate
• Skewers
• Sprinkles

Instructions

 

To make the Brownies

• Preheat oven to 325ºF and spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. In a large bowl, combine the cake mix, pudding mix, melted butter, yogurt (or sour cream), and eggs until thoroughly incorporated. Batter will be very thick.
• Dump the batter into the pan and use a rubber spatula to spread evenly into all edges of the pan.
• Bake for 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow brownies to cool completely before slicing into cubes.

To make the Filling

• In the well-chilled bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream and powdered sugar together until stiff peaks form. Transfer whipped cream to another bowl and place in refrigerator to keep chilled.
• Return bowl to mixer. Switch whisk attachment out and replace with paddle attachment. Beat cream cheese until smooth. Gradually stir in the milk, about 1/4 cup at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Once all milk has been added, switch back to whisk attachment and add the pudding mix. Whisk on high for 2 minutes until mixture is smooth and thickened.
• Add 1 cup of the whipped cream to the bowl and mix thoroughly. Remove bowl from mixer and use a rubber spatula to gently fold about 1/2 of the whipped cream into the pudding mixture.

To Assemble

• Place a layer of brownie cubes in the bottom of a trifle dish*. You'll use half of the brownies. Then pour half of the filling into the trifle dish and spread out evenly. Evenly scatter the chopped candy bars on top of the filling. Add another layer of brownie cubes (using up the last half), followed by the rest of the filling. Top with the reserved whipped cream, spreading evenly. Sprinkle crushed Oreos evenly over whipped cream, making sure to cover up any white that might peek through. Garnish with chocolate tombstones and Halloween sprinkles, if desired.

Notes

*I did a mix of Snickers, Snickers Almond, Snickers PB Squared, and Milky Way Simply Caramels.
*My trifle dish holds a little over 3.5 quarts (14 cups).