Deacon's Dinner & A Cherry Cheese Trifle Recipe

Way back yonder in the fall,

I was asked to host the Annual Fall Deacon and Wives Dinner at our church.

A guy in the church cooked steaks to order,

I cooked the sides,

and for the desserts, I enlisted the help of several other wives.

I fixed the Cherry Cheese Trifle below.

It is always a crowd pleaser, simple to make, and would be a great dessert for Easter.

But before I share the recipe,

I've included a few shots of the table decor.

This was a casual dinner for a group of about 34,

so the decorations were kept simple.

Six Tables were set basically the same.

The lanterns were a great find at Lowe's, on clearance for $4.00.

I would have preferred them to be a darker color, but for the price, 

they work just fine! :)

At the time, our church didn't have tablecloths on hand,
so I opted to use matching placemats at each tablesetting instead.

Didn't get a picture of the plates and silverware on the tables.

I used the church plates, which are a pretty white heavy old ironstone with red floral trim band.

They complimented the fabric centers well!

Again, being that I didn't want the dinner to look too fussy,

{It was a school-night affair}

I did a simple arrangement on the buffet table of lilies in a large glass vase.

Paired with the food, the lilies made a pretty showing.

The dimension is hard to distinguish in the photo, 

but the glass vase is a large piece, and was found thriftin' for about $4.00

Cherry Cheese Trifle

1-8 oz package of cream cheese, softened

1-14 oz can sweetened condensed milk

1-12 oz container frozen whipped topping, thawed

1/2 teaspoon almond extract (optional, gives it a super sweet flavor)

1-13 oz prepared angel food cake

2-21 oz cans cherry pie filling

In a medium bowl, combine cream cheese and sweetened condensed milk. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Stir in 1/2 of whipped topping and almond extract.; set aside.

Tear angel food cake into 1" pieces in bottom of trifle bowl. Spoon 1/3 of cream cheese filling over cake, and top with 1/3 of pie filling. Repeat layers twice more. Spread remaining whipped topping over top of trifle, sealing to edges. Garnish with additional pie filling and some sort of nuts, (almonds or pecans), if desired.

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On another note,

I'll be taking a short blogging break.

My number one girl is home from college this week, on spring break.

woooo hoooooo!

Looking forward to spending the week with her.

Need to really get cracking on some last projects for my booth!

Move-in day is drawing near!

And, I'm itching to do a little spring decorating around the house.

So Lord willing, I'll be back soon! :)