'Tis but a trifle...

In case you do not recognize this as such, it is a trifle. It's the first one I ever made, well, I had help, but they don't deserve any of the blame. It would have been okay if I had a) made the cake ahead of time, which I really knew I should, but I went to Violent Study Club on Monday night, and when I got home I watched TV until I got too tired to think about making a cake, and b) actually followed the instructions and used cake flour instead of assuming regular flour would do just as well.
Nevertheless, it was quite an adventure, and the end result was edible, if not as pretty as I would have liked. At least it didn't include meat, right?

It was a lemon-raspberry trifle with almonds, and the next time I make it, I know it will be beautiful. I remembered about five minutes before people arrived why it is that I don't make new recipes for company (they usually taste alright, but presentation is not my forte), but at that point it was too late to turn back, and besides, I couldn't make it without them anyway because this is not my trifle dish, it's Peter's. So I pulled my very flat cake out of the oven, and we did what we could (Jen and Kevin helped too). Actually, if you'd never seen a trifle before, I think this one looks pretty good. All it's really missing are the layers by which a trifle is defined, but other than that, I don't see any problems, do you? Oh yeah, the flat, dense cake. But really light fluffy cake is totally overrated, right? Okay, I can't justify it. For a trifle, this is really a disaster, but for a non-trifle, it's an absolute masterpiece. I think this could be big, I really do. The dessert of the summer of 2006: The Layerless Trifle. Quick, all of you serve one at your next dinner party, and we can make this happen. Are you with me?