Basic Strawberry Short Cakes

​The start of strawberry season is nearly upon us! Our favorite way to celebrate is with a daily short cake. It’s basically the most iconic spring dessert and likely the easiest spring dessert. While it’s always nice to grow your own strawberries, this current season we’re in has the store bought berries basically too affordable to justify growing on your own. 

​If you are going with store bought, go for the medium sized berries. While the giant ones may see like a good value, they lack sweetness or really any flavor at all. 

​Like I said this recipe couldn’t be much easier, it’s a doctored french vanilla cake mix, berries, sugar, and fresh whipped cream. 

RECIPE​

1 Boxed French Vanilla Cake Mix​

Milk, eggs, melted butter (follow directions on cake mix box for amounts. ​

For the cake simply follow the directions on box, but substitute the water with milk and the oil with melted butter. ​

​While the cake is baking make the whipped cream. Fresh whipped cream is so very easy to make, it’s impossible for me to justify using a whipped topping when you can whip up whipped cream in under five minutes. 

​WHIPPED CREAM

1 Pint Heavy Whipping Cream​

1/4 cup powdered sugar ​

1 teaspoon vanilla extract ​

Whip ingredients until soft peaks form. I prefer to do this by hand as it gives a feeling of accomplishment, but using a stand mixer is acceptable. ​

Do not over mix, the cream will not get fluffier and fluffier, instead it will turn to butter. ​

SUGARED STRAWBERRIES 

​Fresh strawberries

Sugar​

Slice strawberries and place in a bowl. Toss with a good amount of sugar. No need to fully coat, but enough to know there is sugar in the bowl. Allow to sit overnight. The sugar will draw out the liquid from the strawberries creating a wonderful sauce for your short cakes. ​

Cut cakes into desired sizes. I use over sized cookie cutters or a wide mouth canning lid as a template. Add a heaping amount of the chilled whipped cream. Top with berries and sauce and garnish with fresh mint. ​

Basic Bread Pudding

I love bread pudding. A delicious treat perfect for any season. I had some extra loaves of apple cinnamon bread and a beautiful piece of Farmhouse Pottery to shoot. Bread pudding is one of the easiest desserts to make. A perfect way to use day old biscuits or bread or a cake that simply came out of the pan all wrong. 

When making bread pudding you can basically get away with anything. Add raisins or nuts if you’d like. You’ll need a sauce, but it can be a wide variety of things. My recipes is my favorite, but by no way diffenative.

RECIPE

Loaf of bread

3 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon cinnamon  

Add 1/2 cup raisins or nuts for additional flavor.  

Cube loaf of bread into 2” cubes. Mix all other Ingredients together and pour over bread. Allow mixture to sit for an hour or so for the bread to absorb the liquid. 

Bake in a 350 degree oven for up to one hour. Remove when the bread pudding is golden brown. 

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TOPPING

The sauce is truly the most flexible part of this recipe. Sometimes I make a basic caramel, sometimes I make a cream cheese icing, but my go to is an apple butter sauce that is a prime source of diabetes. (Diabetus) 

1 pint prepared apple butter  

1 stick melted butter  

1/2 cup brown sugar  

Mix all ingredients together. Pour over hot bread pudding. Serve hot or cold. 

Refrigerate if not serving right away.