It’s June. The sun is shining, temperature is climbing, and everyone in Seattle is complaining about their home’s lack of A/C. Clearly, summer is almost here. And with summer comes one of the tastiest desserts: strawberry shortcake! National Strawberry Shortcake Day is right around the corner (on Tuesday, June 14th!) and I’m preparing to celebrate the holiday with a new recipe and a fun event!
Various Macy’s locations around the country are going to be holding special events on the 14th with local chefs to celebrate Strawberry Shortcake Day. I’ll be at the one in Downtown Seattle. Join me at 6pm to meet Stacy Fortner, the Executive Pastry Chef at Dahlia Bakery and see a baking demo! Best of all: the event is free! If you’re one of the first 50 people there, you’ll also get a special gift from Pyrex, and if you make a purchase in the home department that day, you’ll get a copy of the (amazing) Dahlia Bakery cookbook. If you’re not in Seattle, check out Macys.com/events to find one near you!
In honor of this upcoming holiday and to stretch my baking muscles a bit, I thought I’d make myself some Strawberry Shortcake. And this time, I wouldn’t cheat and buy pre-made items at the store. 😉 No, this time, I decided to crack open a copy of Helen Brown’s Holiday Cook Book, a somewhat bizarre 1952 cookbook that I recently added to my vintage book collection. Her strawberry shortcake recipe was very basic and written in a colloquial way, like you would find in notes on a family recipe card. (“Add enough milk to make a soft dough” instead of actual amounts.) I took her recipe, added some flair, and figured out some of the measurements. So enjoy my take on Strawberry Shortcake, using a recipe from the 50’s, and incorporating my natural sugars.
- 2 cups flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 3 tbs sugar, divided
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 egg
- 5 tbs unsalted butter
- ¼ milk
- 1 pint strawberries
- whipped cream
- Natural Ruby Sparkling Sugar
- Sparkling Strawberries
- Mix the flour, baking powder, 1 tbs of sugar, salt, and egg together.
- Add the butter in small pieces. Mix with your hands to incorporate the butter into the batter.
- Add half of the milk and mix. Slowly add in more milk as needed to make a soft biscuit dough.
- Place the biscuit dough into a parchment paper-lined casserole dish or cake pan, pushing and stretching it lightly to fill the pan.
- Sprinkle the top with some ruby sparkling sugar.
- Bake at 450 degrees for about 12 minutes or until golden brown.
- While the shortcake is baking, rinse and cut up the strawberries, and mix them with 2 TBS sugar in a bowl. Set aside.
- Once the shortcake is out of the oven, let cool slightly.
- Cut the shortcake into squares, and then cut each square in half to make a biscuit "sandwich."
- Place the bottom part of the shortcake onto a plate, and place some of the strawberry mixture and whipped cream on top.
- Top with the top half of the shortcake. Garnish with whipped cream, ruby sparkling sugar, and a sparkling strawberry.
- Enjoy!
Will I see you on the 14th at Macy’s? What’s your fave strawberry shortcake recipe?
This post is sponsored by Everywhere Agency on behalf of Macy’s; however, all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
