Strawberry Shortcake, Texas Style!

It’s strawberry season, and whether you’re making your strawberry shortcake with store-bought cakes or homemade, here’s how to spice up your springtime strawberry dessert!

Strawberry shortcake is a springtime favorite but can be shared all year long. Here is our favorite shortcake recipe, although we don’t want you to feel too badly if you buy your shortcake at the store. The strawberry mixture with our habanero jelly is the important part, you know. Here is our homemade shortcake recipe, just in case you feel ambitious:

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Strawberry mixture:

• 2 pounds fresh strawberries, washed, drained, cored, and sliced
• 1/2 cup Strawberry Habanero Pepper Jelly
• 5 tablespoons sugar

Toppings to choose from:

• Whipped cream in a can
• Ice cream – we like Vanilla

We start by making the strawberry topping mixture so that once the cakes are ready the strawberries have had time to chill and get that yummy pepper jelly flavor absorbed into them.

In a medium bowl, mix together the strawberries, sugar, and pepper jelly. Put in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight. The longer they chill the more flavor you’ll taste. Don’t let them chill for more than 24 hours, they start breaking down to more juice than berries.

Cake baking directions:

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, 3 tablespoons of sugar, and salt.

Add the cream and mix until just combined. DOn’t over blend because it will cause the cake to be denser. Place the mixture in an ungreased 8-inch square pan and bake for 18 to 20 minutes.

Remove shortcake from pan and place on a rack to cool slightly. Cut into 6 pieces and split each piece in half horizontally (like you are slicing open a hamburger bun).

It’s time to serve your Texas dessert

When it’s dessert time, put a few tablespoons of the strawberry mixture in a small bowl, add a split shortcake, put more strawberry mixture on the cake, add the other half of the cake, and some more strawberries. Dress it up with a dollop of whipped cream and you’ve got a dessert fit for a king.

Even more important, you’ll have an easy inexpensive dessert fit for your family and friends.

What is the #1 dessert in America?

Ice cream! So how does that fit in with our texas style strawberry shortcake dessert? We just drop the whipped cream topping from our recipe above and add a big healthy scoop of our favorite vanilla ice cream instead. We really like doing this method when the shortcake is still warm. It helps the ice cream ooze into the nooks and crannies or the cake.

And done! Two tasty popular desserts all in one bowl.