Strawberry Shortcake: A Summer Treat

It's strawberry season!

I think strawberries have got be one of my favorite foods.  I will eat them here or there, in a box, with a fox, in a tree, so let me be (alone to eat strawberries)! (Sorry, I have Dr. Seuss on the brain right now.) Seriously though...they're grand, and Jane thinks so too.  We spent some time together a couple of days ago making strawberry shortcake.  The home-made kind mind you.  Not the sponge-like stuff, covered in runny jello that you buy pre-made in the store.

We started everything off with slicing the strawberries and sprinkling a bit of sugar over them.  I'm always hesitant to add sugar to strawberries.  I think they are perfectly fine and sweet without it...but a little bit really does help to bring out the juices in the berries...so I do it for strawberry shortcake.

We used this recipe from Allrecipes as a guide for the shortcake.  The difference is, I used butter instead of shortening.  That is just a personal preference, I suppose.  I think butter has more flavor, and the shortcake turned out delicious.

If you are going to make shortcakes with your 4 year old daughter, make sure she wears a black leotard, so that the mess she makes with the flour/baking powder mixture shows up really easy in the photo...just my opinion.  Oh, and be sure that she isn't the one to cut in the butter.  Grown-ups only please.

Stirring in the egg...

...and the milk.

This was Jane's favorite part of the process.  Shortcakes are sooooo easy to make, and a lot of fun for kids.

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker's man...roll-em-up, roll-em-up, throw-em-in-a-pan.... Ok, I know, I'm cheesy.  This is what comes from spending the hole week with my daughter.

Anyway, I added a little bit of sour cream to my whipped cream, just to give it a little tang.  Cream cheese would be a nice add-in too.

20 minutes was enough time in my oven.  The shortcake came out very moist and crumbly, and just slightly sweet.

This is what I had while Jane was taking a nap.  The grown-up version...

...and the after-nap-snack child version.

mmm....good stuff!