Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake is by far one of my favorite desserts. What's not to love about a soft, sweet shortcake with whip cream and strawberries all over it? It has been a tradition in my family that every year on my birthday we have strawberry shortcake. I didn't get it this year :( so i decided I would make it myself! A couple friends had half moved back from Montreal this summer (half as in she has moved back and he has yet to make the transition back to the Prairies) and they were coming over for a dinner party so why not make something special for them? I made an entire dinner but as I already featured one of those recipes in my last blog post I figured I would focus on the dessert in this post. Plus one of the recipes, though delicious, I will never make again so I'll just leave that one in the archives.
I got this recipe from my mom as this is normally the shortbread recipe that she uses and I have yet to have a better strawberry shortcake than hers. Mine was equally as good for the record. So here goes:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp granulated sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 cup milk

For the glaze: milk and granulated sugar

Combine all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. Next, cut in butter finely. Combine the sour cream and milk and then add to the dry ingredients. Stir mixture with a fork until all the ingredients are combined and you have a soft, slightly sticky dough.
Gather the dough onto a floured surface and need until smooth, about 8 times. Roll or pat the dough into either one large round, or 6 individual rounds. I opted for the 6 individual rounds as I wanted to make each person an individual cake. I fear that my dough may have been just a touch too tough as I first patted it out into one large round, realized that was not my plan (I was following the directions a little too carefully), then cut it into 6 pieces and rolled those pieces out again.
I put the cakes on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brushed each of them with the milk and sugar glaze.

There they are, all cute and ready to be baked. I had set the oven at 425 degrees and baked them about 15 to 20 minutes or until they looked like this...

Aren't they just adorable? I left them out to cool completely. In the mean time I prepped my whip cream (whipping cream and powdered sugar in a mixer until stiff peaks form) and strawberries (cut up and then mixed with a tiny bit of sugar just before serving). I cut each cake in half and then layered them with the whip cream and strawberries to make this...

Ta-da! What a perfectly delicious looking strawberry shortcake. Pair this with a glass of wine and you have perfection.
Yay for summer!

- A