SRC: Strawberry Red Velvet Cheesecake Parfait

It's time for this month's Secret Recipe Club! The Secret Recipe Club is a group of food bloggers who secretly make one of someone else's dishes and post them all on the same day at the same time.  It's really fun, choosing a recipe to make, making the recipe, then reading about everyone else's recipes.  It's a great way to "meet" other bloggers and check out some great blogs that you never knew about before.     

This month I was assigned to Wendy's Weekend Gourmet.  I was quite familiar with Wendy's blog, not only from SRC, but also because I participated in her monthly Salad Bar challenge for a while.  I love Wendy's Texan enthusiasm about cooking and during this cold dreary Wisconsin winter, perusing her blog was a joy because all the bright summery ingredients made me think of warmer weather.  

Because I was familiar with Wendy's blog, I had some of her recipes already pinned.  I knew I had pinned her recipes before, but as I went to look for them, I suddenly became aware that Pinterest has no function for searching your pins by a specific source. Might have to submit that one to the suggestion box!  I did remember that I made one of her recipes before.  I made a slight variation of her Turkey Mornay Open-Faced Sandwiches.  It was a couple of years ago, and I didn't write anything down about it, and I remember that I didn't have broccoli, but we totally loved it.

  I found several things to tempt me this time around.  I thought that my daughters would love her Creamy Veggie-Ranch Chicken Wraps.  I love the bright colors from the all the veggies Wendy uses!  I also considered making her Goat Cheese-Stuffed Pork Chops with Maple-Balsamic Parsnips, Apples, and Potatoes.  Yum!  That one is still definitely on my to-make list.  In the end, I decided to do something seasonal.  February provides two options: Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras.  I loved the looks of her Mardi Gras Crispy Fish Sandwiches.  But since Valentine's Day is closer, I went with that.  She has a couple of fun Valentine's Day goodies.  I decided to make her Red Velvet Strawberry Cheesecake Trifles.  Red velvet pound cake, strawberries, and cheesecake filling layered together into one yummy dessert. Mmm!

Strawberry Red Velvet Cheesecake Parfaits

Ingredients:
1½ cups chopped strawberries
1 tbsp sugar
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 cup vanilla Greek yogurt
1 cup powdered sugar
Red velvet cake, pound cake, brownies, or cookies (I used 3 Marie Callender’s mini red velvet cakes, thawed)
White chocolate, for garnish

Directions:
Combine the strawberries and sugar in a small bowl and mix well. Set aside while you prepare the other ingredients.

Combine the cream cheese and the Greek yogurt in a medium bowl.  Slowly add the powdered sugar, mixing well to remove any lumps.  (You can use a hand mixer for this, but I just did it by hand.)

Cut the red velvet cake (or brownies) into cubes.

Get out four parfait glasses and place some of the cheesecake mixture into the bottom of each, being careful not to touch the side of the glass with the spoon.  (I used a parfait spoon and just dropped a couple of dollops into the bottom.)  Place a few red velvet cubes on top, then a couple spoonfuls of the macerated strawberries.  Repeat layers until all ingredients are used.  Shave or grate some white chocolate over the top of each as a garnish.

Makes 4 parfaits.

Wendy used wine glasses, but since I happened to have parfait glasses, I used those.  I actually used two parfait glasses for my husband and myself, but I thought that might be too much for my 4 and 6 year old daughters, so I used these little juice glasses for them.  If you don't care about presentation, you can also just layer this in a regular bowl.  Tastes just as good!

They loved them.  My husband and I did too.  They are amazing!  The cheesecake filling made with cream cheese and Greek yogurt is so good!  I seriously had to stop myself from eating it out of the bowl.  It would make a really awesome fruit dip too.  

 I couldn't find any red velvet pound cake, and thought I was going to be out of luck finding anything red velvet, but then I spotted these in the freezer section.  They worked really well.  I thawed them according to the package directions, then scraped the frosting off.  

Aren't they cute!  If you can't find these, or anything else red velvet, these parfait would be just as good with regular brownies or pound cake.  Use whatever you can find.

The combination of the chewy cake cubes, the creamy cheesecake filling, and the bright tart strawberries is just amazing.  This is one of those recipes where the pictures just do not do it justice.  You've got to make these for your favorite Valentines this year!

Thanks for a great recipe that I already can't wait to make again, Wendy!

Be sure to check out all the other great SRC picks below.

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