A birthday favorite in the DiOrio family, this recipe is from my mother and sure to be a crowd-pleaser anytime if you can buy fresh berries, but especially when you can get vine-ripened strawberries from the farmers market or your own garden!
Strawberry Shortcake
(for one 9” x 13” pan or two 8” round pans)
Ingredients and preparation for the cake:
3 ½ cups sifted flour
2 ¼ cups sugar
1 ½ tsp. salt
3 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ cups milk
1 ½ tsp. vanilla extract
4 eggs
1 ½ sticks of butter (room temperature)
• Preheat oven to 350° F
• Sift together all dry ingredients (except sugar) and set aside
• Cream together the butter and sugar
• Mix in eggs and vanilla
• Alternate dry ingredients with milk until blended completely.
• Bake at 350° F for about 35-40 minutes or more, until tester inserted in the center comes out clean
• Cool completely
Ingredients and preparation for the whipped cream:
1 pint heavy cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
• Whip cream in a chilled bowl until almost stiff
• Add sugar and vanilla
• Beat until cream holds peaks
Ingredients for the sauce and assembly instructions:
1 quart of fresh strawberries
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
• Rinse the strawberries
• Hull all of them
• Cut half of them into quarters
• Use half of the cut strawberries to make a sauce with water and sugar
• Spread whipped cream over the top and sides of the sheet cake or between and on the top and sides of the round the layers
NOTE: If you are making a layer cake with two rounds, then put the other half of the quartered strawberries in between the layers. If you are making a sheet cake, use all of the cut strawberries in the sauce.
• Decorate the cake with the whole strawberries
• Refrigerate until you serve
Then enjoy a big slice at the birthday party! What's your favorite kind of birthday cake?
7 comments:
With the help of my dear friend, Suzanne Passalacqua, my children will be making me a strawberry shortcake this afternoon to celebrate my birthday, which is tomorrow. Very fun!
Too much fun! My mother's recipe is very similar although the cake is more a spongecake texture than a shortcake. I shall make and compare... as soon as I can find fresh strawberries. My beds won't produce any until late May.
As it happens, my son's favorite cake is strawberry, so I made him one. He took the whole thing to work and came back with the container and an empty plate.
Fresh strawberries are one of my favorites. They are like my Green Eggs & Ham. I would eat them on a train, I would eat them in the rain. I also like to put them in a pitcher of water to give it a little extra flavor. Nothing says summer quite like fresh strawberries.
Rana...what a wonderful way to spend your birthday...Mom's traditional birthday cake and all your best girl's together creating this delicious cake...a true labor of love! Happy Birthday!
Our traditional, family, birthday cake is white cake with chocolate frosting with vanilla ice cream! My husband changed his choice to pie a few years ago (fresh berry)!
I changed my cake to a special cookie last year - my mother's chocolate-dipped "spritz gebaeck". I would have forgotten that if you hadn't mentioned the pie switch, Katy. I have to say the cookie idea was inspired because I ate them for two weeks after my birthday!
Yummm this sounds delicious! I will have to try this.
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