Strawberry Shortcake

I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com and thought it looked different and yummy, plus it had a relatively small ingredient list and of course who doesn't love strawberry shortcake! So I thought we'd give it a try! I scaled my recipe to 2 (the original recipe is listed below and serves 8) and used a large ramekin to bake the shortcake out and it worked perfectly. It was just the right size to share with Kent and enjoy on a warm summer night! The shortcake is absolutely lovely, very much like a dense angel food cake - slightly sticky/spongy just a touch of sweetness with a tender crumb. Perfect!

I started with Stevia, AP flour, strawberries, egg, vanilla, cornstarch and baking powder. 

I used Stevia in place of sugar for the strawberries, but don't recommend it. They tasted lovely and lightly sweet but it didn't create all the juice sugar would have which is a must for shortcake! :)

I combined the flour and baking powder.

And in went the salt.

My kitchen helper, Kent, whisked those together.

I separated the egg.

Added the vanilla to the yolk.

That was whisked together and set aside.

The egg whites went into the Kitchen Aid (I added a little extra whites since the scaled recipe called for a white plus a little extra). I turned that onto medium-high speed.

Then slowly added in the sugar (I used real sugar for this part).

Starting to blend together.

Getting creamier...

Ahhh, egg white peaks! Perfection!

The yolk and vanilla mixture were gently folded into the whites.

Next came the dry ingredients.

Folded those in gently and tried to not over stir.

Filled up a large ramekin with the batter.

And about 20 minutes later this beautiful, puffy shortcake emerged!

I let the cake actually sit for about 24 hours, we didn't eat it until the next night. I split the whole cake in half.

The slightly juicy, but very tasty, strawberries!

Poured on the strawberries.

Topped with the other half of the cake.

Then beautifully topped with whipped cream. I cheated and used canned whipped cream I already had instead of making fresh like the recipe calls for. I can tell though, with this recipe homemade really would have made a difference and really complimented the shortcake. Canned stuff is yummy too, but of course not the same! This was a really, really good dish and we gobbled it up. My son loved it and I did too. It was a special treat, but really not too time or labor intensive and a perfect ending to the day!

Petra's Strawberry Shortcake By: Petra from AllRecipes.com



Serves: 8

Ingredients

2 pounds fresh strawberries, sliced
1 cup white sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
5 eggs, separated
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups white sugar

1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Directions

Place the sliced strawberries into a mixing bowl and stir in 1 cup of sugar. Cover, and refrigerate 2 hours to overnight. Stir the strawberries occasionally. The longer they sit in the syrup, the more syrup you will have.

Preheat an oven to 375 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x13-inch baking dish. Whisk the flour together with cornstarch, and baking powder in a mixing bowl.

Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl with the vanilla extract until smooth; set aside. Whip the egg whites with an electric mixer until very stiff. Slowly add the 1 1/4 cup sugar to the egg whites, a few tablespoons at a time, until the sugar is incorporated and the whites are stiff. Fold in the yolk mixture until almost fully blended into the whites. Fold in the flour mixture until just combined. A few small lumps of flour should remain. Scrape the batter into the prepared baking dish.

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 22 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then invert the cake onto a sheet of waxed paper, and cut into 8 equal pieces. While the cake is cooling, whip the heavy cream with the confectioners' sugar to soft peaks.

To assemble the strawberry shortcakes: cut each cake square in half horizontally, and put the bottom halves onto dessert plates. Spoon on the strawberries and syrup, then top with the cake tops. Spoon on whipped cream to serve.