SUMMERTIME STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE CAKE!

My sweet 7 year old granddaughter called and wanted to come over and bake strawberry shortcake.  She loves to bake and every time we bake together she improves her skills. Since traditional strawberry shortcake is made with whipped cream and we needed to bake something that she would take home for her family to have for dessert tonight I decided on a shortcake cake.

 We gathered our ingredients to make a simple homemade cake.

 Little helping hands.

 We selected (2) 8x8 pans to bake the cake.

Recipe

Simple Vanilla Cake

1 cup of sugar (I always bake with super fine sugar)
1 softened cube of butter
2 eggs, room temperature
1 t baking powder
1 1/2 cup AP flour (I always use King Arthur flour)
1/4 t salt
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350°

Cream together the sugar and butter in your mixing bowl until nice and creamy, add the eggs one at a time and whip until incorporated, sift together the soda, salt and flour and mix into the butter/sugar mixture a little bit at a time alternating with the milk until it is all mixed.

Pour into two 8x8 pans that have either been sprayed with a product like Bakers Joy or flour and grease the pans.

Bake until toothpick comes out clean, approximately 14 minutes.  I had two different pans and one was done before the other, just keep an eye on it, you don't want to over bake.

  Topping 

1 10oz carton of Cool Whip, thawed in the fridge overnight
8oz of cream cheese, set out to soften
1/2 cup of powdered sugar

Cream together the cream cheese and powdered sugar and then add the Cool Whip until it is all incorporated, put in the fridge until ready to use.

 Strawberries

We used a large carton (Driscoll's 16oz) of strawberries, washed them in a strainer and then we sat and hulled them.  Something new for her and she told me that she did not think her mother would like her using a "real" knife.  I assured her that under adult supervision (that would be me) that her mother would approve.  She did quite well.  After hulling the cleaned berries we cut them in half and diced them.

 We simply cut each cake down the middle (after cooling) and did a creamy layer, then strawberries, then the other cake, creamy layer and strawberries. I also admit to giving the top berries a little dusting of superfine sugar.  We had two shortcake cake loaves to send home with her.

But before we sent her home with her baked goods a hard working baker needed to have a "test" piece and she declared the strawberry shortcake cake delicious and worthy for her to take home to her family!

Thank you for stopping by.