Country Cooking: Old Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake

If your idea of strawberry shortcake is white fluffy biscuits piled high with cultivated strawberries and whipped cream, you might be right -- at least as far as modern day recipes go. Old-fashioned strawberry shortcake served hot from the oven across New England in the early to mid 1900's is quite a different story. This shortcake is rich and sweet and sets the mouth to watering from its delicious aroma. Made from wild strawberries and real yellow cake, this dessert was served in midsummer when the berries were ripe.

Preparing the strawberries
Place two to four cups of wild strawberries in a large bowl and cover with approximately 'Æ'†'" '''Æ'''½ cup of sugar. Mix thoroughly to cover all the berries with sugar. Mash lightly with the back of a large spoon or with an old-fashioned potato masher. This releases the juices that give this strawberry shortcake it's characteristic flavor and appearance. Set the berries aside to steep in the sugary syrup.

Making the cake
Traditional New England strawberry shortcake is made from a yellow cake made from scratch. Although you can use a yellow cake mix, if you prefer, but the texture will not be the same. Reduce the amount of sugar in the cake by one half and bake as directed in a 9 by 13 pan.

Preparation
Remove the cake from the oven and allow to cool slightly. The key to traditional strawberry shortcake is warm cake. When the cake is cool enough to handle, cut it into serving size pieces. Slice the piece of cake into two layers. Spread the layers on a plate and spread with margarine. The cake should be hot enough to melt the margarine.

Putting it together
Scoop the strawberry mixture over the bottom layer of each piece of cake, making sure to cover the entire surface. Place the top section on the cake and layer with strawberry mixture.

Serving
Place the cake slices in bowls and pour milk over the top. Use enough milk to "soak" the cake with an inch or so of milk in the bottom of the bowl. The juice from the strawberries creates delightfully rich strawberry milk in a rich shade of pink.

Store any left over strawberry shortcake in the refrigerator, but do not add milk until serving time. This dessert can be served cold, and is still very tasty -- but it simply melts in the mouth with served right from the oven. If you have taste for old-fashioned farm cooking like Grandma used to make, this is one recipe you simply must try.

Other work by this author:
How to Make Homemade Chokecherry Jelly
Homemade Chicken Soup with Dumplings: Even Better Than Grandma's Secret Recipe
Homemade Bread: History and A Recipe