Strawberry Shortcake

My favorite homemade Strawberry Shortcake recipe! Today’s post is jam-packed with plenty of tips, tricks, and even a video so you can see exactly how to make this sweet, simple, recipe from scratch. Recipe includes a how-to video!

Classic Strawberry Shortcake

While many strawberry shortcake recipes these days are made with pound cake or sponge cake, today we’re taking the traditional route and making classic shortcakes from scratch. 

Buttery shortcakes (which are basically biscuits, lightly sweetened with sugar on top), freshly whipped cream, juicy ripe strawberries, this is all you need for a refreshing summertime dessert. Traditional strawberry shortcake is lightly sweetened but not tooth-achingly sugary. Most of the sweetness comes from the juicy berries and the freshly whipped cream, with just a hint in the shortcakes.

Sound like your thing? Let’s get right to it! I think you’ll find this recipe to be easy, but to help I’ve included plenty of tips, a video, and step-by-step photos.

Strawberry Shortcake Ingredients

My recipe is simple and perfectly sweet. Here’s what you need:

• Fresh Strawberries. Fresh is best when you’re making strawberry shortcakes. Sprinkle a bit of sugar over them to make them flavorful and juicy.
• Sugar. Granulated sugar sweetens the strawberry shortcakes while powdered sugar sweetens the whipped cream and helps it achieve its thick, billowy texture.
• Butter. Use cold, unsalted butter (or if you only have salted butter, drop the salt down to ½ teaspoon). The colder the butter is, the flakier your shortcakes will be. I recommend tossing a stick in the freezer 15-20 minutes before you plan to begin making strawberry shortcakes.
• Cream & Milk. I like to use a blend of cream and milk for tender, enriched biscuits. If you don’t have enough heavy cream on-hand (remember, you need it for the whipped cream!), just use ¾ cup of milk instead. Buttermilk may also be substituted for both the cream and milk, and people have reported success using 2% milk, too!
• Salt. For flavor and to balance out the sweetness.
• Baking Powder. I’m asked often if the amount of baking powder listed is correct. Yes! You need 1 tablespoon for this recipe. Please do not substitute or add baking soda, which will ruin the recipe.
• Vanilla Extract. Adds a hint of flavor to the whipped cream.

Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full strawberry shortcake recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!

Preparing the Strawberries (How to Macerate Strawberries)

Macerating strawberries is a critical but oh-so easy step for making strawberry shortcakes; it’s also our first step. This is simply the process of softening the berries and making them juicy. How do you do this? Just cut your berries, toss them in some sugar, stir, and let them sit.

That’s it.

What macerating does is it softens our strawberries, and the sugar draws out the fruit’s juices, making for extra juicy and flavorful strawberries. Fancy name, important step. Do this step first, as the longer the berries, sit the juicier they will get and the better your strawberry shortcakes will ultimately be.

Making The Shortcakes

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl and set that aside, then grate your butter! This is my favorite trick to easy, buttery shortcakes/biscuits. Makes quick work of it and keeps the butter from becoming too soft!
2. Stir together butter and flour mixture. The ingredients will look crumbly and very dry still!
3. Add (cold!) heavy cream and milk and stir with a spatula or wooden spoon to combine, making sure to not overwork the dough (this causes dense, dry shortcakes).
4. Transfer the dough to a floured surface, dust it with a bit of flour if it’s sticky or wet, and form it into a ball or disk, just make sure it’s clinging together!

SAM’S TIP: The box grater makes adding your butter nice and easy and is one of the tricks that makes my biscuit recipe so popular, but if you don’t have one you can just use a regular pastry cutter. I’ve also made strawberry shortcakes in a food processor before, so that’s another option!

1. A brief and basic lesson in lamination! Folding the dough over itself causes light, buttery, flaky layers: ideal for strawberry shortcake! To make these, fold the dough over itself and gently press/flatten. Turn 90 degrees, fold and press again. Repeat until you’ve done this 5-6 times.
2. Flatten the dough to 1″ thick and cut out 6-7 biscuits with a lightly floured biscuit cutter (or, make ’em square! Form the dough into a rectangle and use a knife to cut the dough into squares!). Make your cuts as close as possible, while any scraps can be regrouped to make more biscuits, they get flatter a little wonky looking with each re-roll.
3. Brush biscuits with heavy cream and generously sprinkle granulated sugar over the tops.
4. Bake the biscuits until the tops and bottoms are a light golden brown in color, then let them cool.

SAM’S TIP: Any time you’re cutting biscuits/shortcakes, always press straight down with your biscuit cutter or knife. Never saw or twist your way through the dough or they’ll likely to tilt or even topple over in the oven. This is a key tip in my scone recipe, and worth mentioning here for pretty strawberry shortcakes, too!

Preparing The Whipped Cream

1. This is the easiest part of making strawberry shortcake. Combine cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla in a chilled bowl (preferably metal), and beat with an electric mixer on low-speed.
2. Gradually increase to high-speed until stiff peaks have formed. The cream should have a thick billowy consistency (like Cool Whip, only it tastes 500x better).

Frequently Asked Questions

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Enjoy!

Let’s bake together! Make sure to check out the how-to VIDEO in the recipe card! 

Recipe originally published 05/02/2018. Updated for clarity and to provide more information and a new video April 2021.