Take 5 Candy Bar Trifle

One of my favorite wedding presents we received last year was a beautiful and personalized trifle bowl. The bowl is simple and elegant, I was so excited when we opened it. I felt like I hadn't done the bowl justice, though, as I had only used it for decoration.  I've had it out on display, and filled it with seasonal decor, but I had not actually made a trifle to go in it! I saw so many great recipes online, but I really wanted to create something unique.

My beautiful trifle bowl

I looked through various trifle recipes, and decided to go with a trifle that had a pound cake base. That seems to be pretty common, and there were tons of fruit or pudding themed options. I found strawberry, cannoli, and everything in between! I really wanted to make my own creation, though. I tried a couple different ideas, but wasn't thrilled with the results. I decided the third times a charm, and to tackle recreating the Hershey's Take 5 candy bar.

Have you ever had a Take 5 candy bar?  They are delicious and packed full of flavor!! The candy bars first came out when I was working one summer at a grocery store.  As a cashier, I would have the candy bars right in front of me all day tempting me.  Hershey even came out with a white chocolate version, which became an instant favorite of mine.  If you haven't heard of this candy bar, it gets its name due to containing 5 main ingredients - chocolate, peanut butter, caramel, pretzels, and peanuts.  Sounds amazing, right?

Now let me just say, that's a LOT of flavors to pack into a trifle bowl! I didn't want it to be too heavy with the caramel, peanut butter, and chocolate.  I decided to go with a Dulce de Leche thick caramel, but lighten the peanut butter up by creating a fluffy (and easy) whipped peanut butter topping.  Instead of using a thick, rich chocolate sauce, I went with a lighter chocolate pudding.  Of course for the pretzels and peanuts, I chopped them up and created a crunchy texture for the trifle.  The pound cake is perfect because you don't need a real strong flavor, just something to hold up the layers and act as a nice compliment. Angel food cake would be another great foundation for this trifle.

There are a lot of steps and components to this trifle, but no baking!  I decided to use store bought pound cake.  We are finally getting some warm weather here, which is great, but we are having issues with our air conditioner!  I really wanted to make a treat that wouldn't get the oven going and heat up our apartment even more.  This would be a great dessert to create in the summer when you want to reduce oven use!

Entenmann's snack pound cake

I've tweaked recipes many times, but this was one of my first attempts at creating a dish completely on my own. I came up with how I was going to incorporate the various flavors, and what ratios to use. So there are a few things I might adjust before making this again, but as a whole I was very pleased with the results. The caramel flavor isn't as strong as other flavors, but overall you definitely get the taste of the candy bar in this trifle! You could double the caramel amount if you want a stronger caramel flavor. This recipe will make 2 layers in a large trifle bowl like mine.  If you want to have more layers in a large trifle bowl, just double the amounts and use until you fill the bowl.

Take 5 Trifle Ingredients (2 layer trifle):

• 3 oz (small box) chocolate instant pudding package
• 2 cups milk
• 1/2 can of Dulce de Leche caramel
• 2/3 peanut butter
• 8 oz Cool-Whip
• 1/3 cup salted peanuts
• 2/3 cup pretzel twists
• 1 box Entenmann's pound cake (5 individual cakes)

Take 5 Trifle Instructions (2 layer trifle):

• Start by cutting up the pound cake into small cubes

• Cover the bottom on the trifle bowl with 1/2 of the pound cake (what's shown is not quite half,  I was originally going for 3 layers)

• Pour two cups of cold milk in a bowl and whisk in chocolate pudding mix

• Let sit up in the fridge while working on other ingredients
• Fold in 2/3 cup peanut butter into 8 oz of Cool Whip until mixed completely (taste and add more peanut butter if needed)

• Using a food processor, chop up 1/3 cup chopped peanuts and 2/3 cup pretzel twists and combine completely

• Put caramel in a microwave safe bowl and warm it up slightly (around 12-15 secs)
• Cover the pound cake with half of the chocolate pudding, smoothing it out over the cake

• Top the chocolate with 1/2 of the caramel

• Next, add 1/2 of the light peanut butter whipped topping

• Sprinkle half of the peanut/pretzel mixture over top of the peanut whipped topping

• Repeat the steps adding another layer of pound cake, pudding, caramel, whipped topping, and peanut/pretzel powder
• If you made extra ingredients, repeat until you are out of ingredients

Hope you enjoy this recipe! I'd love to hear how you like it if you try it.  Don't forget to follow me on my social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram) for more ideas and updates!