Strawberry Shortcake

This Strawberry Shortcake recipe is a classic dessert made with a simple homemade moist and fluffy shortcake, sliced macerated strawberries, and whipped cream.

 

Estimated reading time: 1 minute

There’s no dessert more classic than a good old strawberry shortcake. We absolutely love strawberry everything, and this Strawberry Shortcake recipe is one of our absolute favourite ways to enjoy fresh strawberries during strawberry season. If you’re hosting a tea party, a baby or wedding shower, or you’re just looking for a simple make-ahead dessert, we’ve got you covered with this Strawberry Shortcake recipe. Trust us, you’re going to love it!

Strawberry shortcake is popular dessert that combines fresh, sweet strawberries with tender, fluffy shortcake, and sweetened whipped cream. It’s a classic sweet treat that resembles a scone-like cake that is split horizontally and filled with sliced strawberries that have been macerated in sugar. The strawberries release their natural juices, creating a delicious syrupy sauce that soaks into the cake. It’s served with a generous dollop (or two!) of softly whipped cream, creating a dessert that’s as beautiful as it is delicious!

Shortcake is a rich, flaky cake made with flour, sugar, butter, and baking powder. Despite its name, a shortcake recipe is not very similar to a traditional cake recipe – it has a very different texture than a typical cake and instead, it actually resembles a soft and moist scone. The term “short” in the word shortcake refers to the high amount of fat (real unsalted butter) that’s cut into the flour, giving the cake its characteristic fluffy, flaky texture. Shortcake dough is mixed until just combined, folded, and cut into rounds for individual servings. It’s brushed with cream, baked, and then served with juicy strawberries and soft whipped cream.

While traditional cakes are made with a higher proportion of liquid, making them softer and more pillowy, a shortcake recipe calls for a higher proportion of fat and less liquid. This inhibits gluten formation and keeps the texture more dense and flaky. The leavening in shortcake comes mostly from baking powder, which provides just enough lift to create a tender texture but not the sponge-like fluffiness of traditional cakes. Shortcake doesn’t get soggy and soak up liquid like a traditional cake does, making it perfect for serving with fresh berries.

Want to make this BEST EVER tender, fluffy homemade strawberry shortcake recipe? Here’s how to do it!

Cold butter straight from the fridge is what helps create those flaky layers and that soft texture. Using warm or room temperature butter will cause your dough to be too liquid-y and you’ll end up with a mushy mess and dense, heavy shortcakes. When the butter is cold the fat remains solid, which is what creates those flaky layers.

In our experience, the BEST way to combine the dry ingredients and the butter is with your hands, using quick rubbing motions. Pick up a handful and rub it once between your hands to create small sheets of butter instead of tiny clumps. This will help create those flaky layers instead of big pockets of air.

Don’t over-mix or over-work the dough. Nobody likes a tough, dry strawberry shortcake, and this is what over-mixing the dough will create because mixing activates the gluten in the flour. Mix just until the flour almost disappears and you’ll be left with flaky layers and a nice, tender shortcake!

When the dough is just about mixed (when you still see streaks of flour), pour it out onto a lightly floured work surface and fold it in half, and in half again (and again) until everything is combined. This will also create delicious layers and prevent the dough from becoming dry.

Pat the dough out to a thickness of about 1-2 inches. Thinner dough won’t rise as well and you’ll end up with shortcakes that are flat and less flaky.

When cutting out your shortcakes, use a sharp, straight-edged cutter to press down directly through the dough. Some recipes recommend using a glass, but we’ve found that when you use a dull-edged cutter or when you use a sharp cutter and twist the cutter it can seal the edges of the shortcake and prevent it from rising properly.

To give your shortcakes a professional bakery look, lightly brush the tops with some cream before baking. This will help the tops stay shiny turn a delicate golden brown.

Space the shortcakes about 2 to 3 inches apart on the baking sheet to allow for even cooking and proper heat distribution as they bake.

Make sure your oven is properly preheated to a higher temperature (375 Fahrenheit) so when the dough hits the heat of the oven they’ll rise quickly and form a crisp outer shell that will help to lift the shortcakes as they bake.

Slicing the strawberries, tossing them with sugar and letting them develop their own juicy sauce takes this recipe over the top. Don’t skip this step!

The key to baking up perfect shortcake is in the science of how the ingredients, especially the butter, are incorporated into the dough. The texture of the final result depends on how the butter interacts with the flour before and during baking. When cold fat, like butter, is mixed with flour and then heated in the oven, it melts and releases steam. It’s this steam that helps to create layers and thin pockets within the dough, giving it lift and flakiness.

Here are the four most common methods to incorporate butter into the flour mixture when making a strawberry shortcake recipe:

1. Sheeting Butter by Hand: This is our favourite technique when it comes to making scones, biscuits, and shortcake. It involves flattening chunks of cold butter directly into the flour mix using the palms of your hands. Pick up a handful of the mixture and rub it once between your hands to create small sheets of butter instead of tiny clumps. This method allows the butter to remain in larger, flatter pieces within the flour, which melt during baking to create pockets of steam that give the shortcakes flakiness.
2. Grating Frozen Butter: An alternative and almost as effective method is to grate frozen butter into the flour mixture using a box grater. This technique distributes the butter more evenly throughout the flour, which can promote a uniform texture and consistent flakiness throughout the shortcake. But since the butter flakes are smaller, the shortcakes aren’t quite as fluffy and flaky as when you create sheets of butter by hand. After grating, quickly toss the butter shreds into the flour mixture to coat them before they begin to melt. This helps keep the mixture cold and delays the fat from integrating fully into the flour, ideal for achieving a light, airy texture.
3. Using a Pastry Cutter: For those who prefer not to get their hands buttery, a pastry cutter or pastry blender offers a clean and efficient way to cut butter into the flour. This tool helps break the cold butter into small pebbles or coarse crumbs without warming it, which is crucial for flaky pastry. The key here is to avoid overworking the mixture; you’re aiming for a crumbly texture where some larger pieces of butter are still visible. These bits of butter will melt as the shortcakes bake, creating similar pockets of steam. With this method, the shortcakes are fluffy but less flaky since the butter pieces are in chunks, not sheets.
4. Using a Food Processor. We hate washing extra dishes so this method isn’t our first choice, but the butter and dry ingredients can be added to a food processor and pulsed until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. This method works in a similar way to using a pastry cutter and it results in a fluffy shortcake without the same flakiness as the first two methods because the butter pieces are in chunks, not sheets.

Each method has its benefits, and choosing one over the other can depend on personal preference or the specific texture you’re aiming for in your homemade shortcake. We always choose the first method, sheeting the butter by hand, because in our experience it yields the best, most professional results.

Regardless of the method you choose, the main principle remains: the butter must stay as cold as possible while being integrated into the flour to prevent it from blending too thoroughly into the flour before baking. This ensures that during baking the butter melts and creates steam and lift, resulting in light, flaky, and tender shortcakes.

Here’s the kitchen equipment you’ll need to have on hand to make this strawberry shortcake recipe (paid links):

• mixing bowls
• measuring cups and spoons
• liquid measuring cups
• Whisk
• silicone or rubber Spatula
• Baking Sheets and Parchment Paper for baking the shortcakes
• a chopping board and knife for slicing the strawberries
• a Hand Electric Mixer or Stand Mixer for whipping the cream

Here’s a list of the ingredients you’ll need to make this Strawberry Shortcake recipe (paid links):

For the Shortcakes

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 lemon zest only
• 3/4 cup half and half cream plus a few extra tablespoons for brushing on the shortcakes before baking
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter cold from the fridge

For the Strawberries

• 4 cups fresh strawberries sliced
• 4 tablespoons granulated sugar

For the Whipped Cream

• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Want to try something new? Here’s a list of our favourite variations on this classic strawberry shortcake recipe!

1. Strawberry Cheesecake: Fold some whipped cream cheese into the heavy cream as it whips for a cheesecake twist on the original.
2. Blueberry: Serve with fresh blueberries instead of strawberries for a blueberry-forward dessert.
3. Raspberry: Serve with fresh raspberries instead of strawberries for the perfect dessert for raspberry lovers!
4. Cherry: Serve with chopped cherries instead of strawberries and replace the vanilla extract with almond extract in the shortcakes.
5. Balsamic Strawberry: Drizzle balsamic reduction over the strawberries when macerating them. The balsamic vinegar enhances the sweetness of the strawberries and adds a rich depth of flavour.
6. Peaches and Cream Shortcake: Replace strawberries with fresh peaches or a mix of peaches and strawberries. Peaches offer a sweet, juicy variation and go wonderfully with the cream and biscuit base.

We hope you love this classic strawberry shortcake recipe as much as we do! Let us know, what’s your favourite simple dessert to make at home? We’d love to know!

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