Short and Sweet Recipe: Mini Strawberry Shortcake.

Last week, my fiance and I were invited to another couple’s place for a game night. Being that we never like to show up anywhere empty handed, I decided to make a little dessert to bring along with us. I wanted something relatively simple, relatively summery, and relatively small, since it was going to be a small gathering. After much contemplation, I settled on the queen of summer desserts herself: Strawberry Shortcake. I already had some really nice-looking strawberries that had I literally just purchased the day before, so it would appear that the stars had aligned just right. (Except for that one star that I’ll call “heavy cream” – I had to send my fiance out to get that at the last minute).

But otherwise, I had all the ingredients to make a tasty vanilla cake, whipped cream frosting, and fresh strawberry filling between layers and adornments for the top.

top that.

Again, since it was for small gathering, I decided to make it a 6″ cake, instead of the traditional 8″. Not only would it be a more appropriate amount of dessert, but it also looked so darn cute. Like the puppy version of a cake.

baby cake.

And even with making it smaller, there were leftovers. Not that I’m complaining.

Wanna make your own for that Labor Day gathering you were invited to this weekend? Here’s how!

Mini Strawberry Shortcake.

For the Cake:

What you’ll need:

1 cup water

1/4 cup + 2 tblsp canola oil

1 tblsp white vinegar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups sifted flour

1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

(Plus 1 cup of chopped strawberries for filling and 5 additional whole strawberries for decorating)

What you’ll do:

Preheat the oven to 350. In a large bowl, combine the water, canola oil, vinegar, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sifted flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix until smooth. Grease two 6″ round pans, and evenly divide the batter between the two. Bake for approx. 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.

For the Whipped Cream Frosting:

What you’ll need:

2 cups heavy cream

3 tblsp sugar

1 tsp vanilla

What you’ll do:

In a pre-chilled mixing bowl, whip the cream with the whisk attachment until it forms soft peaks. Add the sugar and vanilla, and continue whipping until stiff peaks form.

Frost the top of one of the layers of the cake with the whipped cream, and using a decorating bag fitted with the star tip, pipe a border around the edge, Fill the center with the chopped strawberries, and place the second layer on top. Cover both layers entirely with a smooth coating of the whipped cream. Using the same star tip, pipe a shell border around the base of the cake, and 8 rosettes around the top. Cut the 5 large strawberries in half, and place one half on top of each of the rosettes. Pipe a dollop of whipped cream onto on of the remaining two halves, and make a little strawberry and cream sandwich for the center.

 

 

strawberry cakes forever.

 

Today I was in Wegmans (my favorite supermarket in the universe), and they had the most luscious and fresh strawberries I’ve seen in quite some time. Last time I bought strawberries, it was mid-winter and they were…. a disappointment, to say the least – shriveled, moldy, and bitter, like that crotchety old coot who lived next door to your parents and gave you the hairy eyeball every time your ball went into his yard.  

darn kids and their rock and roll music!

Anyway, these strawberries I purchased today were the exact opposite of that: supple, juicy, delovely and delicious. I couldn’t ask for another.

groove is in the heart...or berry.

Those are the actual strawberries I purchased, too – this ain’t no stock photography. As you can see, I was not exaggerating. 

There is, however, one small problem – or large problem: the container was giant and there was no smaller option. I am only one person, and a rather small one at that. So this begs the question – what does one rather small person do with so many strawberries?!

The answer is easy, if you take it logically, my friends. Bake stuff with them. So I went through my top secret baking photo arsenal (aka – thumb drive), and searched through some of my previously made desserts that included strawberries. So here’s what I’ve come up with:

1. Strawberry Vanilla Cupcakes

berrylicious.

The icing is a strawberry buttercream, the cake a light vanilla sponge. That still leaves a bunch of berries though for….

2.  Cheesecake with fruit topping.

everything's better with cheese.

You can’t go wrong with a cheesecake topped with fresh fruit. Even after this however, there will still be some berries leftover, which leads me to one final berry sweet project:

3. Classic Strawberry Shortcake.

berry bliss.

The cake is again vanilla sponge, the icing is whipped cream, and there’s many, many more berries on the inside.

So, it looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me. Sigh…it’s getting hard to be someone….but it all works out. 🙂