Strawberry Shortcake

I love that strawberries are in season now in California. Whenever we’re at the farmer’s market, we cannot help but pick up a basket or three of them to take home. And besides eating them fresh, this is one application that I love to do using strawberries (the other is the vanilla layer cake that I’ve blogged about before).

I have been wanting to share this strawberry shortcake recipe with you for a while now. This was the recipe that I told you about in my other scones post. This dough is more moist and yet still buttery and flaky enough that it works for so many applications. As a matter of fact, Fine Cooking calls it a multi-purpose baking mix and I’ve used it to make scones, cobbler toppings, savory biscuits and of course, these strawberry shortcakes.

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These days, I don’t bake as much as I used to. I just can’t afford the sugar and calories anymore. At least while I was a graduate student living in a graduate dorm, I could always pass out my baking to all the hungry students and not eat them all myself.

These days, I’m being more careful to only bake when I have an occasion to bring them somewhere or when I have people over. Otherwise, being a stay-at-home mom, these baked goods somehow find their way into my hands and quickly into the safest place possible (my tummy! ^_^).

So even though I love to bake, I’ve resigned myself to doing it occasionally rather than as often as I would like. Last night though, I really wanted to bake even though I had no reason to (seriously, do we ever really need a reason?) nor any occasion for it!

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Updated February 25, 2008

Originally posted December 7, 2006

No, this is not a section of an ant colony. This delectable item is a cake that you simply must try!

Malaysian Honeycomb Cake

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Daniel’s 7th Birthday Cake

When I first had children and started celebrating their birthdays, I’d bake my own birthday cakes for their parties. The very first one I did I used a recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s Cake Bible book and it turned out really well. However, the frosting called for buttercream. While it was a really delicious and not-too-sweet buttercream frosting, it was still a LOT of butter! And I’ve always preferred fresh whipped cream whenever possible.

This recipe from Fine Cooking magazine has been my go-to cake recipe for all special occasions now. I’ve used it to bake birthday cakes and baby shower cakes. Just about any occasion that calls for a cake, I’ve made it. I’ll tell you why.

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