Strawberry Shortcake

Guest writer alert! This article was written by Tanaya Mehta, who is a close friend of mine and a very good cook

My mother had just come off her no sugar diet, and I wanted to make her something to celebrate. I had some fresh strawberries lying around, and she loves strawberry shortcakes, so that’s what I made. There are 3 main elements required in a good shortcake. Let's start with the biscuit. The first question to ask is whether to use cold, soft or melted butter. When you put cold butter in the oven, it melts and lets off steam, which makes lots of little air pockets and helps the cookie become flaky and crisp, making it perfect for shortbread. To mix in the butter, a food processor is great, but I didn’t have one, so I used a blender. I ended up over blending the mix which made it into a wet dough even before I could add in the buttermilk. The easiest way to rescue a dough like this is to just add more flour until you reach the consistency you want. I was able to form a proper dough that I could use for the biscuits and the final baked result turn out well regardless of the issues.

Next is the strawberries. Of course, this is another important element within this dish and it is required to bring out the flavour within the dry biscuit. In most cases, strawberries are enough on their own, but for a good shortcake, I’d recommend tossing the strawberries with some sugar and then keeping them in the fridge. Without this, the shortcake stands the risk of not being sweet enough and tasting somewhat bland. The duration is your preference, based on how sweet you want your strawberries. I put mine in the fridge overnight.

The last element is whipped cream. Making a good whipped cream isn’t as hard as you’d think. The only major difficulty is keeping the bowl cool. I suggest placing the bowl of cream in a larger ice bath to keep it cool and to help the fat in the cream trap the air bubbles that make it light and fluffy. If it gets too warm, the fat melts and the air escapes. It usually takes me between 8 and 9 minutes to reach fully stiff peaks. I made the cream in the morning right before eating, because the longer you leave whipped cream, the more air escapes.

The plating is the most important part. I cut the biscuit in half, placed a thin layer of cream and a couple of strawberries on one half of the biscuit. Then I put the other half on top of this layer and then added a second layer of cream and strawberries on top. The choice of the plate is important too. In this case, I’d recommend either a plain white plate or a blue/black plate, which all highlight the main colours of the dish. I had a beautiful bright blue plate which I used.

Shortcake Recipe - https://sallysbakingaddiction.com/easy-homemade-strawberry-shortcake/