Just about everywhere in the U. S. right now, you can find fresh locally grown strawberries. It's almost impossible, for me at least, to look at a pint of fresh strawberries and not at least think about strawberry shortcake. Now, I have strong personal opinions about shortcake, and how to make it, and those opinions include an intense aversion to the pre-made packaged sponge-cakes designed for strawberry shortcake. One of my fellow sufferers when I lived in a dorm used to make "Faux Strawberry Shortcake" with, I kid you not, Twinkies and Cool Whip garnished with fresh berries. I'm here to tell you that there's a much better way to easily, quickly make your own Strawberry Shortcake. The secret? Frozen Pound Cake, from your grocer's frozen dessert case. These are already baked, and ready to go after a few minutes at room temperature. Sara Lee makes a good frozen pound cake, and I'm sure there are others as well. Generally their are two sizes; a large complete cake, and a much smaller one meant for one or two servings. The recipe that follows assumes that you are making strawberry shortcake for two people.
Ingredients
- 1 pint of perfectly ripe fresh strawberries for each two people
- 8 ounces of heavy cream, whipped OR one spray can of Real Whipping Cream
- 1 frozen pound cake
- 1 Tablespoon of orange juice
- 2 or 3 Tablespoons of Sugar
Procedure
- Remove the frozen Pound Cake from the freezer and thaw according to the manufacturer's directions. It's actually rather pleasant on a very hot day for the cake to still be chilled but fork-tender.
- Wash, drain, and de-stem the strawberries using your fingers or a sharp paring knife.
- Sort through the strawberries, removing and setting aside a few particularly attractive berries to use as garnish.
- Slice the remaining berries into a bowl. Very small berries may left whole.
- Try at least one of the berries to determine how sweet they are.
- Drizzle the orange juice over the berries, and gently turn them over to coat them with a mixture of berry juice and orange juice.
- Sprinkle some of the sugar over the berries, sweetening them to taste. Less is actually more in this case.
- Gently turn the berries over to mix and melt the sugar.
- Put the berries in the fridge if possible to marinate.
- Slice the pound cake so that you have two slices for each person.
- Place one slice of pound cake on each of two small plates or bowls.
- Cover the slices of pound cake with whipped cream.
- Layer, using your fingers and/or a spoon or fork, half of the berries over each slice of pound cake.
- Pour the remaining juice over the berries.
- Top the berries with a garnish of whipped cream, and decorate with the reserved berries you set aside.
There are many, many, variations possible. You can double up the slices of pound cake, alternating them with whipped cream and additional berries, for larger portions. You can mix the strawberries with other fruit—fresh peach slices, or blueberries, for instance. You can substitute lemon juice, or Grand Marnier or Courvoisier for the orange juice (if you use alcohol to flavor the berries, do let them marinate a bit). If you're whipping your own cream, try adding just a little sugar (no more than a scant teaspoon) and a dash or two of Grand Marnier or Courvoisier to the whipping cream. It is possible to use frozen berries, but that kind of defeats the point; it's the fresh strawberries that makes this dessert something to savor.