Homemade Strawberry Shortcake

Sooo good!

Cheri, Gail and I went to Bakesale Betty's, where we ate fried chicken sandwiches, and then we made strawberry shortcakes, inspired by the ones they sell at Bakesale Betty's:

Cheri put a lot of effort into the dough (ended up being more like a scone than a cake)!:




With sugar:


Here's the recipe Gail found (original here from Allrecipes.com):

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 cup butter
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 cups sliced fresh strawberries
• 3 tablespoons white sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In large bowl, mix flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and cream of tartar.
3. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives.
   
4. Stir in cream and egg.
   
5. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 2 minutes.
   
6. Press into a half-inch thick sheet, cut into squares, and place on baking sheets.
7. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes or until golden.
8. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons sugar over sliced berries.
9. Let shortcakes cool before splitting and filling with strawberries.

--> Instead of splitting and filling them, we just put the hand-whipped cream Gail made on top of each square and then topped that with strawberries (as you can see in the picture above)

Here's the recipe for the whipped cream (from Bakesale Betty's site):

"Wash, hull and slice strawberries. Sprinkle with 1/4c. sugar and sit for 30 mins.

Whip cream, sugar, and vanilla until soft peaks form.

Top shortcakes with a dollop of cream.

Spoon strawberries over cream."

Another 3-Layer Chocolate Cake

* Baked around Christmas 2006 *




I think this was a chocolate cake for two Christmases ago. It's three-layer chocolate cake (allll chocolate), but it turned out dry on the inside. At least the frosting was really good. No recipe...sorry (probably don't want it anyway).

The 3-Layer Chocolate Cake

* Baked 12.2007 I think...2007 for sure*

Mom and I made this cake (the recipe was in a magazine...I don't know the name of it) for our family friends (and yes, I washed my hands repeatedly in order to take these step-by-step pictures):

The Frosting:
This cake tasted fantastic. Both the cake and the frosting were a hundred times better than those of the chocolate fudge cake with coffee frosting from Christmas Eve. It wasn't too too difficult, although it takes extra time because you have to make three layers and then frost the whole thing. You also have to be careful not to put too much frosting in between the layers because I had JUST enough with which to cover the top. Perfect. If only it were low in sugar and fat. Haha.