Easy Strawberry Shortcake Recipe

Strawberry Shortcake is a classic summer dessert for a reason: it’s easy to make, fun to eat and totally irresistible! In this simple recipe, homemade shortcake biscuits are stuffed with juicy strawberries and homemade whipped cream. You have to make it!

A Traditional Strawberry Shortcake Recipe

Even though strawberries are usually best during the spring and summer, we’ve been getting great strawberries for months around here. A little nutty, but also wonderful! Strawberries are easily one of the hubs and I’s favorites, so naturally the twins are big fans too. We are constantly buying them and boy do they smell good!

And with so many delicious strawberries around, strawberry shortcake is a must! The boys don’t really eat things like shortcake or biscuits yet, but when they start, these will be a regular for us during the summers. How can you beat fresh strawberries, whipped cream and biscuits?! Especially when they are so simple to put together.

This traditional strawberry shortcake recipe is just like grandma used to make. It’s comprised of three simple components: shortcake biscuits made from scratch, fresh strawberries and homemade whipped cream.

The Biscuits Are What Make this Recipe

Now you can find a lot of variation between shortcake/biscuit recipes, so let’s talk about this one a little bit. There’s the more cakey shortcakes and the true biscuit shortcakes. I personally like a little bit of a combo. I don’t want something so cakey that it’s not a biscuit, but also not something so like a biscuit that it doesn’t feel like dessert.

A few things that make these shortcakes awesome:

• An egg, for just a smidge of “cakeyness” without being too much.
• Vanilla extract, for excellent flavor.
• Sugar, also for flavor both in the biscuit and on top.

Now if you’re really into a more cakey biscuit, you could add a little more cream and get there, but I find these are just right.

Tips for the Best Shortcake Biscuits

Now just a few tips when it comes to the biscuits:

1. Don’t over mix the dough or you’ll end up with tough, flat biscuits.
2. When cutting them out, press straight down and don’t twist the cutter. Twisting will mess up the layers and they’ll bake/rise funky.
3. Dip the cutter in some flour before cutting each one out to prevent sticking.

How to Make a Strawberry Shortcake Dessert

This strawberry shortcake recipe is so easy to prepare. It’s a great candidate for kids helping in the kitchen, though maybe get a few extra strawberries because they will definitely be sampling as they go! Here’s how to make strawberry shortcake from scratch:

Step 1: Prepare the Fresh Strawberries

To get started making strawberry shortcake, you’ll put together the strawberries. The recipe calls for one and a half pounds of strawberries, but you could always have more on hand. The more, the merrier! Slice up those strawberries, sprinkle on the sugar and stir it all together, then set them in the fridge to get all nice and juicy.

While it may be tempting to reduce the sugar a bit here, you really want to be sure to use enough sugar to macerate the strawberries – bring out the juices. The sugar draws out the moisture, so reducing it will also reduce the amount of strawberry sauce you end up with for your biscuits, which would be sad.

Step 2: Make the Biscuits

While the strawberries sit and do their thing, make the biscuits. Now I know the word “biscuit” can sound scary, especially when making them from scratch, but they really are very simple to make. Let’s break it down a bit:

1. Combine the dry ingredients.
2. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients.
3. Add the cream and egg.
4. Cut the biscuits out.
5. Bake.

That’s it! Simple ingredients, simple method, delicious biscuits. Who knew making homemade biscuits for strawberry shortcake was so easy?

Step 3: Make the Whipped Cream

Next up is the homemade whipped cream. It doesn’t get much better than this. And if you haven’t made homemade whipped cream before, you are totally missing out. I grew up on the store-bought stuff, but I’ve since learned that homemade is the way to go. SUPER easy and so much more delicious!

To make your whipped cream, add the heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract to a mixer bowl and whip on high speed until medium to stiff peaks form. It’s that easy!

I’d suggest making the whipped cream shortly before serving so it’s fresh, but this whipped cream will be stable. So, if you wanted to make it ahead, you totally could.

Step 4: Assemble Your Strawberry Shortcake

To assemble the shortcakes, just slice the biscuits in half horizontally and fill with plenty of strawberries and whipped cream! Get really crazy and add even more strawberries and cream on top!

One of the best things about this dessert is that assembly is so easy and everyone can make their own however they like. Just put out the biscuits, berries and whipped cream and let everyone go to town!

These strawberry shortcakes are wonderfully delicious, fresh for summer and easy to put together. Such a crowd pleaser too!

How to Store Strawberry Shortcake

Store the shortcake biscuits in an airtight container. They will keep on the counter at room temperature for 3-4 days.

Store the strawberries in the refrigerator in an airtight container. They will also keep for 3-4 days. If you run out of shortcake biscuits and still have some macerated strawberries to use, they are amazing mixed into yogurt or spooned on top of ice cream.

The whipped cream needs to be used when it is made, so unfortunately you can’t store whipped cream for later.

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This recipe modified from Martha Stewart.

More Strawberry Desserts to Try

• Mini Strawberry Cheesecakes
• Easy Strawberry Cheesecake
• Strawberry Shortcake Cake
• Strawberry Shortcake Icebox Cake

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