Strawberry Shortcake Cake Recipe

Photo: Strawberry Shortcake
Meagher, Megan - Buy This Allposters.com

The strawberry shortcake recipe originates from Europe... Basically a shortcake is a European dessert that is a scone or biscuit - crusty outside, soft inside and that dates back to the late 1500's. However strawberries and shortcake put together as we know the strawberry shortcake dessert nowadays is more of a United States tradition.

Strawberries were enjoyed already in the Roman era and Romans often used them in beauty products. Those delicious fruits were an enjoyable dessert in the Shakespearian period. Although in past centuries fruits were processed into jams (for conservation reasons), strawberries were made to enjoy at the beginning of the Summertime much like the dessert is enjoyed today.

Strawberry shortcake dessert appeared in the United States in the 1850's probably adapted from the strawberry cake recipe, and was a popular dessert often included at Summer parties. But the history of strawberry shortcake came into its own in the 1930's when women were encouraged to use a certain brand of flour in their cooking. Shortcake suited this combination very well and thus gained in popularity.

Nowadays, people mostly use some kind of "sponge" cake to prepare the strawberry shortcake. But this isn't the purpose of this page; here you are going to learn how to prepare a biscuit strawberry shortcake dessert and discover the original strawberry shortcake recipe.

The time has come to unveil this timeless classic and present this delicious strawberry shortcake recipe. And in order to do things properly, we are going to start with the most important part.

How to make a strawberry shortcake dessert - Ingredients:

• 2 pounds bright red, plump and firm strawberries
• 1/3 cup butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cup "heavy" cream (must contain 40% butter)
• Vanilla extract
• 2 cups Flour
• 1/2 cup Sugar
• 1 large egg (optional)
• 2 teaspoons Baking powder
• 1/8 teaspoon Salt

The strawberry shortcake recipe being quite long, I cut it into two separate pieces; you'll find directions on how to prepare the strawberries, bake the biscuit and serve the whole cake in the chapter below.

Photo: Strawberry Cake Photographic Print,
Duffy, Emily - Buy at AllPosters.com

Here we are going to talk about the directions and last step in our strawberry shortcake recipe: the serving phase.

One hour before starting the shortcake:

• Remove the stems of the strawberries and wash them
• Slice them into bite size pieces
• Crush about one third of the strawberries using potato masher
• Add 1/4 cup sugar to the remaining ones
• Leave the mixture for about 30 to 60 minutes and let the berries soften and release their juices

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Mix together the flour, the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt.
• Cut the butter into small pieces and blend into the flour mixture with a pastry blender
• Moisten the dough with 1/2 cup milk (mixed with the large egg if you want)
• Place the dough on a baking sheet or in a cake form and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until it gets nicely browned
• In the meantime, add vanilla extract (and sugar if you like) to the heavy cream and whip the mixture

• Cut the scones in half and place the bottom half of there scone on a dessert plate.
• Top with strawberries, now place top half of the scone on strawberries
• Top with the cream and add the finishing touches with a few additional strawberries
• Serve immediately with a cup of tea or coffee