The Meal o' Love Part 3: Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry shortcake is definitely what I would define as a summer dessert, but it's featured on many Valentine's day menus because of the dessert's colors (strawberries are definitely what I would call a staple food of Valentine's day), and because of it's appeal as a heart-felt, comfort food.

When I was growing up we'd have strawberry shortcake all the time, but the cake portion was generally a store bought commodity, which, let's face it, is just easier.

Since this was a meal made to show my affection to Tony, however, I decided that I wanted to make just about everything from scratch, including the cake and the whipped cream.

Here's how the story goes....

Strawberry Short Cake
Part One: Homemade Yellow Cake
(adapted from an AllRecipes page: David's Yellow Cake)

So, perhaps I'm just a dummy, but I really didn't know why yellow cake was, well...yellow. I had always assumed that the store bought boxes just contained some sort of coloring to make the cake look that way, which is most likely true.

Real, homemade yellow cake, however, is yellow because of all the dang egg yolks you put into it! I was amazed how they were able to turn the white mixture of the creamed butter and sugar into a deep, rich yellow color. Beautiful!


Ingredients:

1 cup butter
1.5 cups granulated sugar
8 egg yolks (use the white for a tasty omelet!)
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
3/4 c milk
2 cups cake flour (I used Softasilk)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 8" cake pans.

2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg yolks one at a time (or, if your like me and accidentally break a yolk or two, guesstimate :)...), and then mix in the vanilla extract.

3. Alternately add flour and milk, mixing only until things are all incorporated (i.e. don't overmix).

4. Pour the batter into the pans and bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

5. Transfer to cooling rack after about 15 minutes.

This yellow cake is absolutely delicious! It's soft and moist, and definitely the perfect accompaniment to strawberries and whipped cream!

Part Two: The Strawberries

Gage how many strawberries you need to how many servings your making. It took the two of us about 3 days to get through a 1 lb box of strawberries.

Cut the strawberries into bite size pieces and sprinkle them with a little bit of sugar. Allow them to mellow in the fridge for a few hours.

Part Three: The Whipped Cream

I had no idea that whipped cream that wasn't either Cool or Redi existed until about a year ago. I've never made whipped cream before, but that sure wasn't going to stop me from trying to impress Tony with my cooking skills...

Ingredients:

1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4-1/3 cup of sugar (or Splenda)

1. Mix all the ingredients together.

2. Using an electric mixer (I tried doing this by hand, and I got tired REALLY fast. Embrace technology, people.), whip the cream until peaks form.

Part 4: Assembly

Layer the cake in chunks on the bottom of a bowl. Top with the chopped strawberries, and finish off with the whipped cream. 

Enjoy with a glass (or seven)  of your favorite dessert wine!