Shortcake is a crumbly, buttery, soft inside, crispy on the outside cake. With a delightful strawberry sauce and homemade not-too-sweet whipped cream, it makes a great dessert or snack.

I froze half of these batch to save for later, you can freeze them in a cake pan and once they're hard, you put them all into a freezer bag. This way you can have them ready very quickly for a breakfast or whenever you want to.

What a pleasure it is to eat strawberries ! This strawberry sauce is perfect, not too sour, not too sweet, syrupy from the cornstarch. It's also delicious in plain yogurt !

Strawberry shortcake (serves 12) :

For the shortcake :

• 450g flour
• 65g white sugar
• 185g butter
• 180ml buttermilk (or kefir) + a few tbsp
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp salt

For the strawberry sauce :

• 350g strawberries + a few for decorating
• 30g sugar
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 10 cl water

For the whipped cream :

• 50cl whipping cream (30% fat)
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Start by making the shortcakes.

In a bowl, mix the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.  

Add the cold butter diced. Mix with your hands, crumble the butter bits with the flour until you get a sandy texture with small pieces of butter still visible.

Add the egg and buttermilk. Mix it in with a spatula. With floured hands, knead the dough to incorporate the flour completely then transfer to a lightly floured surface.

Spread it until it's 1 cm high. With a circle cookie cutter, cut 12 circles. Use the leftovers everytime to spread again and cut more.

Put the shortcakes into a greased oven dish. No worries if they touch, it's even better.

Freeze the dish for 15 minutes, meanwhile preheat the oven at 220°/425°F.

Brush the shortcakes with buttermilk and sprinkle them with brown sugar before baking. Baking for 15-20 minutes, if they brown too quickly, cover them with foil.

While it's cooking. Make the strawberry sauce.

Quarter the strawberries, put them in a sauce pan with sugar, water and cornstarch. Mix well.

Simmer on low heat for 7 to 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

When the shortcakes are baked and cold and the strawberry is chilled too, whip the whipped cream with sugar and vanilla in a stand mixer.

Put the whipped cream in a piping bag.

To serve : open the shortcake in half, had some whipped cream, a bit of strawberry sauce, more whipped cream. Put the top back, add a dot of whipped cream and a strawberry on top.

Enjoy !