Easy Homemade Strawberry Shortcake

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Strawberry Shortcake

These homemade strawberry shortcake biscuits are sweet, light, and fluffy with a slightly crackly sugar exterior. Look no further for the perfect shortcakes to soak up some juicy strawberry goodness smothered with whipped cream!

What is Strawberry Shortcake?

Shortcake is a classic American sweet biscuit used for desserts. While angel food cake often acts as a substitute, the true recipe and tradition calls for these sweet biscuits.

To make it strawberry shortcake, just add strawberries and whipped cream. It is as simple as that!

Strawberry Shortcake cut in half with cream and berries

I didn’t grow up eating shortcake biscuits. We always had angel food cake, which I have to admit is pretty good. But shortcake biscuits are truly American, so I felt like it was important to add this recipe to my website and to our own family recipe book.

Putting an easy homemade strawberry shortcake recipe together required some thought and research. There are so many different versions of shortcake out there, so I had to really think through what a sweet biscuit smothered in strawberries and cream should taste and feel like. I definitely had a few flops in creating this recipe, but in the end, it turned out just right!

Strawberry Shortcake

Baker Street Breakdown

  • All-purpose flour gives these sweet biscuits the right amount of support. Cake flour doesn’t have enough gluten and bread flour has too much, so stick with basic all-purpose flour.
  • Baking powder really gives these cakes a lift. Without the baking powder, they would remain quite flat and wouldn’t have that beautiful and impressive height.
  • Use milk mixed with lemon juice instead of buttermilk. The ratio of ingredients changes because real buttermilk is thicker than milk and lemon juice, so it alters the biscuits.
  • If you do not have kosher salt on hand, use 1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon regular salt instead. Either will work just fine.
  • While it’s not a life or death situation if you don’t have coarse sugar to sprinkle on top, it really makes a difference and adds more texture!
  • Use a 2 1/4 to 3 inch ring to cut out the biscuits, making sure to flour the ring each time so the dough doesn’t stick.
  • Rimmed baking sheets are best for this recipe because they promote even baking and less spreading of the dough.
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Easy Homemade Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake Closeup
  • Author: Camille
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 15 minutes
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 810 servings 1x

Ingredients

Scale

Sweet Biscuits

  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup +1 Tbs granulated sugar
  • 5 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1 Tbs lemon juice
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • Coarse sugar 
  • Heavy cream for glazing

Strawberry Topping

  • 1 pint strawberries
  • 1/2 cup sugar

Whipped Cream

  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 2 Tbs granulated sugar
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla

Instructions

Shortcakes

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Combine all dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse to mix. 
  3. Add cubed butter and pulse 6-8 times or until butter is broken up into very small pieces.
  4. Combine milk and lemon juice in a measuring cup and let sit for two minutes. Pour all wet ingredients into the food processor and pulse just until ingredients come together, about 5-8 pulses. The dough may be a bit crumbly, but you should not have any flour remaining.
  5. Turn dough out onto a floured surface and gently press the dough together. Sprinkle the top of the dough lightly with flour. Press with your hands or use a rolling pin until dough is 1 inch thick.
  6. Use a 2 to 2 1/2 inch circle cutter. First. dip the cutter in flour. Then cut the first biscuit out by pressing straight down. Do not turn the cutter back and forth as it cuts because twisting will seal the sides of the dough. When the sides are sealed, the biscuits will not rise properly.
  7. Dip cutter into flour after cutting each biscuit. Repeat with remaining dough and reuse scraps by gently pressing together. The end scraps will not be very pretty when cut into a circle, but they will still taste great!
  8. Brush tops of biscuits with heavy cream to help them brown when baking. Sprinkle with sanding sugar to finish.
  9. Bake at 400 degrees for 12 -15 minutes or until light golden brown on top. Let biscuits cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack.

Macerated Strawberries

  1. Rinse, dry, and cut strawberries into small pieces. Pour 1/2 cup sugar over strawberries and stir to combine. Store in refrigerator for 4 hours so that the sugar has time to pull out those delicious strawberry juices!
  2. Whip heavy cream, 2 tbs sugar, and vanilla until stiff peaks form. Do not over whip the cream, otherwise it will look almost grainy.
  3. Slice shortcakes in half, drizzle strawberry juice on the two half, and top with strawberries and whipped cream!

Notes

Shortcakes can be stored for a day, but note that they will get soft and lose their crispy texture on top if sealed in a bag. It is best to leave them out on a plate and allow the air to keep them from softening. They will not be quite as tender after sitting out the second day, but they will work great with macerated strawberries. 

*This is a Baker Street Original Recipe

Keywords: strawberry shortcake, biscuits, sweet biscuits, sweet cakes, shortcake, homemade strawberry shortcake

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