Strawberry Shortcake

Winter has finally kick in and it's this time of the year when I always have the constant craving for dessert. The hardest challenge for me is to resist this temptation after dinner as I always feel the need to complete my meal with something sweet. Tonight, I am torturing myself by (1)not having any dessert, (2)watching & salivating over the MasterChef Australia Celebrity Chef Challenge - Egg and Soldiers by Martin Blunos, and (3)writing this long-overdue dessert entry. Why am I doing this to myself? I am so hungry (greedy to be exact) that I can easily have half of the strawberry shortcake to myself!

Enough with the complains, I have only myself to blame for. This strawberry shortcake recipe is from the Delicious Sweet Magazine that I bought a couple of months ago. So far I have only tried and tested this and the Raspberry Swirl Cheesecakes, plenty more for me to indulge in!

This dessert is fairly easy to make, the biggest hurdle for me is getting the right texture/consistency of the sponge. The texture is still too hard for a sponge cake, but I absolutely love the aroma of lemon zest in it.

Serves 8

125g unsalted butter, softened

125g caster sugar

2 eggs

2/3 cup (100g) self-raising flour, sifted

2 tbs fine polenta

Grated zest of 1/2 lemon

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup (60ml) milk

Filling

400g strawberries

200ml thickened cream

1-2 tbs icing sugar, plus extra to dust

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line the base of two 20cm sandwich pans. 

Using electric beaters, beat butter and sugar until thick and pale. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then gently fold in remaining ingredients. Divide between pans and smooth the tops. Bake for 18-20 minutes until a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean. Cool before turning out of pans.

For filling, hull and quarter berries, reserving 2 to decorate. Whip cream and icing sugar to firm peaks, then gently fold in berries. Spread over 1 cake, then top with remaining cake. Dust with icing sugar. Top with halved reserved berries.

Treat yourself to an afternoon tea (or anytime of the day) with this light and refreshing cake!