Mini Strawberry Shortcakes

The Art.

    Strawberries are having a wonderful season this year, and whether you take advantage of the discounted cartons at the grocery store or choose to go berry picking, chances are you have a fridge full of strawberries right now. The mild temperatures and plentiful rain we've had in our area has produced some very delicious, sweet fruit, and I wanted to showcase the beautiful berries in a light dessert. Naturally, I made some strawberry shortcakes, but with a fresher twist. I nixed the heavy biscuit and replaced it with my standard yellow cake. These cakes have a springy texture, yet are sturdy enough to stand up to the water content of the strawberries. They are layered with an unsweetened puree of fresh strawberries, and a dollop homemade whipped cream blended with cream cheese. Topping it off with a halved strawberry adds unadulterated fruit flavor and some nice contrasting color provided by the leaves.

    Just when you thought it couldn't get any better, this recipe comes with a bonus dessert! Since these round cakes are cut from a 9x13 cake, you will have some pieces left over. I suggest layering them in champagne flutes with any extra berries and cream to make some fancy parfaits.

The Science.

    Making fresh fruit desserts in the summer is such a treat, but we need to be careful to enhance the naturally sweet flavors, and not overpower them. Sampling your fruit before you begin to bake will give you an idea of how much sugar you need to add. Baking with berries that are in season improves the chances that their flavor will be optimal, because strawberries are a fruit that must be picked when ripe and will not ripen any further once they are harvested [1]. Immature berries have high levels of citric acid, which is what makes them taste sour. As the fruit matures, the acidity decreases and there is an increase in glucose and fructose sugars [2,3]. The best strawberries will have a balance of sweet and tart flavors, and adding too much refined sugar can upset this balance. Complimenting the fresh strawberries with flavors that are not too sweet ensures that the light, tart notes can still shine through.

The Recipe.

Yellow cake:
1 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons salted butter
3/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk

    Preheat oven to 350^oF. Coat a 9x13 pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Beat butter in large bowl on medium-high until fluffy, then gradually beat in sugar. Beat eggs in, one at a time. Stir vanilla into buttermilk. Alternately add flour mixture and buttermilk to butter/sugar/egg mixture while beating on low speed.  Beat an additional 30 seconds. Pour batter into mold/pan and spread evenly. Lift and drop on the counter a couple times to eliminate bubbles in the batter. Bake on center rack for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 5 minutes, remove the parchment paper, then place on wire rack until completely cool.

    If you have a 1.5-inch round cookie cutter, use it to cut out 20 individual cakes. If you're like me and don't have a round cookie cutter, use the rim of a champagne flute. (Doing this is what gave me idea to make parfaits with the leftover cake bits.)

Strawberry Puree:
10-12 strawberries, quartered
2 tablespoons triple sec

    Place quartered strawberries in food processor and pulse in 3 to 5 short bursts, just until chunks are uniform. You should have about 1 to 1 1/2 cups puree. If your strawberries are sweet, you won't need to add any sugar. If they are a little tart, add just enough sugar to take the edge off the tartness. 

    Place puree in a fine mesh strainer and let juices drain into a small saucepan. Set puree aside. Simmer juices over low heat with triple sec until reduced to 2 tablespoons, then stir into puree and refrigerate while making the whipped cream.

Whipped Cream:
4oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 cup 40% heavy whipping cream
pinch salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

    Place a medium bowl in an ice bath. Beat cream cheese in the bowl until fluffy. Slowly beat in cream on low speed until incorporated. Add salt, vanilla, and sugar. Beat on high until stiff peaks form, then beat an additional 30 seconds. Keep cream chilled until ready to use.

Assembly:
    Lay cakes out on work surface. Spoon approximately 1 teaspoon of strawberry puree onto each cake, spreading almost to the edges. Place whipped cream in a piping bag fitted with a 1M star tip, and pipe a star on each cake. Top cakes with a halved strawberry. Refrigerate cakes and serve within one day.

1. Kader, A. "Fruit Maturity, Ripening, and Quality Relationships." http://ucce.ucdavis.edu/files/datastore/234-167.pdf

2. Mahmood, T, et al. "Compositional Variation in Sugars and Organic Acids at Different Maturity Stages in Selected Small Fruits from Pakistan." International Journal of Molecular Sciences 2012, Vol. 13(2): pp. 1380-1392.
3. Mikulic-Petkovsek, M et al. "Composition of Sugars, Organic Acids, and Total Phenolics in 25 Wild or Cultivated Berry Species." Journal of Food Science 2012, Vol. 77(10): pp. C1064-C1070.