Tacky Easter Food - Twinkie Twifle

My sis and I visit our cousins every Easter and I have mentioned before that they traditionally make a monstrosity dessert consisting of chunks of angel food cake, strawberries, jello, and frosted with bright pink Cook Whip. You can see a picture of it here.

This year they decided to dispense with tradition and try something different. "Strawberry Shortcake!" they told us, to which Sis and I squealed in glee..."made with Twinkies!" they added. Uh Oh...

We arrived the night before Easter and we discussed the various presentations for the Twinkie shortcake. Should we arrange the Twinkies in a starburst with the strawberries piled in the middle? Should we build the Twinkies as a series of mini Stonehenges with the strawberries artfully arranged to suggest traditional sacrifices?

We didn't want the dessert to be too trailer trashy but we still wanted to maintain complete "twinkiness". We settled on a variation of The Trifle and did a trial run with the Twinkies still in their package.

A perfect concept, don't you think?

The next day the girls (cousin Laura and friend Jenna) began construction. They feared that if all the Twinkies faced one way the complete "twinkiness" would not be maximized. Therefore they alternated them, some showing the rounded side out, some displaying the flat side where the filling gets injected. Nobody could mistake that these are Twinkies!

They filled their trifle with strawberries and fresh whipped cream. Yes, the cream is slightly pink. Was there ever any doubt?

Voila! The completed Twinkie Twifle! The guests pronounced it delicious by devouring the entire thing.

But please don't ask me how it was. I bypassed the Twifle and went straight for the homemade Lemon Cheesecake with shortbread crust, although I did top it with a dollop of fresh strawberries and pink whipped cream. Deeeeeeelicious!