Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry shortcake was a family favorite when I was growing up, especially on those hot, steamy summer nights in my home state of Minnesota. If it was too hot to turn on the oven to make homemade biscuits, my Dad would just pick up those little sponge cake shells or a premade angel food cake from the grocery store as a stand in. 

My Dad still loves strawberry shortcake to this day. He was thrilled when, on a recent trip home, I tested several batches of sweet cream biscuits, which we then turned into this strawberry shortcake dessert. It was a sweet moment of being able to serve him a nostalgic summer dessert from my childhood that he used to serve to me.

Only Simple Ingredients Required

Here is what’s I use to make strawberry shortcake at home: 

• Homemade biscuits: Believe it or not, it doesn’t take long to make homemade biscuits from scratch, which serve as the strawberry shortcake cake. Though it seems intimidating, I encourage everyone to try making homemade biscuits at least once, since the tasty reward is huge and the experience is eye opening as a home cook. My sweet cream biscuits require simple ingredients: milk, vanilla, white vinegar, all-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cold unsalted butter. But, in a pinch, use store-bought biscuits, cakes, or tarts instead. 
• Strawberries: I start with 2 pounds of fresh strawberries, which I hull (remove the stems) and then slice thin. 
• Maple syrup: I call for just enough maple syrup to enhance the natural sweetness of the berries. The addition of sugar (which, in this case, is in the form of maple syrup) is called maceration, a process that draws juice out of the berries and softens them to creating a syrupy sauce to soak into the biscuits. 
• Lemon juice and zest: Lemon juice and zest make the strawberry flavor pop and also add a nice tart flavor to balance the sweetness of the strawberries. 
• Vanilla extract: I call for a little vanilla extract in the berry mixture, as well as in the whipped cream. Both of them add a pop of flavor that pairs well with the strawberries and shortcakes. 
• Salt: A pinch of salt (which is about half of an ⅛ teaspoon salt) helps intensify and balance the natural sweetness of the berries while also helping to soften them. 
• Heavy cream: This is the base of the homemade whipped cream, which I make as an easy added touch making this recipe for strawberry shortcake taste so good and memorable. In a pinch for time? Use store-bought whipped cream or whipped topping instead. 
• Powdered sugar: I sweeten the cream with a few teaspoons of powdered sugar before whipping it into peaks with a hand mixer. 

Find the ingredient list with exact measurements in the recipe card below.

Make Homemade Strawberry Shortcake

There are three basic components of a classic strawberry shortcake recipe: shortcake (or sweet biscuits), strawberry sauce, and whipped cream. Here’s how this dessert comes together: 

1. Make the biscuits: It takes about 15 minutes to prep biscuits from scratch. While the oven is preheating, stir together the milk, vanilla extract, and white vinegar to make a quick version of sweet buttermilk. Then stir together the dry ingredients, quickly mix in the grated butter, then add the buttermilk mixture. Stir until a craggy dough forms, then shape it into a rectangle that is 1-inch thick. Fold the rectangle over itself a few times, like closing a book. Then reshape it into a rectangle and cut it into 8 biscuits shapes. Place those on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet and place in the preheated oven for a bake time of 10 to 12 minutes, until they’re golden brown on the tops and bottoms. 
2. Prep the strawberries: While the biscuits are cooling on a wire rack, make the strawberry sauce mixture. Stir together the sliced strawberries, maple syrup, lemon juice and lemon zest, vanilla, and a pinch of salt. 
3. Whip the cream: Combine the heavy cream, vanilla, and powdered sugar in a mixing bowl. Whip it with a hand-held electric mixer at increasing speed until stiff peaks form, which takes 2 to 3 minutes. A stand mixer with a whisk attachment also works for whipping the cream.  
4. Assemble: The final step is to put all of the components together. Split open a baked biscuit, top it with some of the juicy strawberries and a dollop of the whipped cream. Place the top biscuit over top and drizzle more of the strawberry mixture and whipped cream over top. Garnish with fresh mint on top of the cake and serve. 

For serving size and the complete directions and ingredient amounts, scroll down to the recipe card below. All of our recipes include the nutrition analysis, listing calories (kcals), protein, carbohydrates/carb, fiber, sugar, sodium, cholesterol, and more per serving.

Helpful Equipment

Here are the kitchen tools I gather when making strawberry shortcake from scratch: 

• Mixing bowls – Use medium or large mixing bowls to make the biscuit dough, macerated strawberries, and whipped cream
• Pastry blender – I use this tool to help incorporate the butter pieces into the flour mixture 
• Bench knife – this is my favorite tool for helping to shape and portion out the biscuit dough
• Box grater – for grating the cold butter into the flour mixture for the dough, which helps create little pockets of fat that makes the biscuit shortcakes tender and flakey 
• Masher or fork – for slightly mashing down the strawberries, which helps thicken the sauce without having to add a lot of sugar or a thickening agent 
• Hand mixer – for whipping the cream 

Make It Gluten Free

To make the shortcakes gluten-free, substitute gluten-free 1:1 baking flour for the all-purpose flour in the sweet cream biscuits recipe or use a store-bought gluten-free pound cake or gluten-free cake mix.

A Classic Dessert Or A Non-Traditional Breakfast

For me, this dessert is synonymous with warm summer nights, leisurely backyard meals, and the fourth of July. Serving up this favorite strawberry shortcake is my way of giving my loved ones a big hug and “I love you” on a plate. 

But I sometimes also enjoy strawberry shortcake for breakfast, too. My Dad, who adores this recipe, has long held the belief that fruit-based desserts are perfectly acceptable for breakfast from time to time. His rationale is that it’s not much sweeter than a stack of pancakes or waffles with syrup, and you know what? He’s not wrong. In fact, this “breakfast” serves up a decent amount of vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, and calcium, too.

Cover And Store

Truth be told, I never really have leftovers of this dessert, since it’s a family favorite that everyone looks forward to. But, say that there were some leftovers of the biscuits, strawberry mixture, or whipped cream, I recommend storing each component separately in airtight containers. Store the biscuits at room temperature, and refrigerate the macerated strawberries and whipped cream for up to 3 days. 

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The photos in this post were taken by Megan McKeehan.

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