Summer Sweetness: Baked Strawberry Shortcake Guest Post

Happy Father’s day!

This past week has been one of the craziest weeks I have had all summer – I have barely slowed down! Between Father's Day shenanigans, exams, weddings, pet sitting, house sitting, and prepping for a fun blogger meet-up next week, I’ve barely been able to keep up. I have a lot of future blog posts in the works, stuck in my back pocket for days where I have a few short hours to spare. This week, though, I knew that getting a post out would be just impossible so I begged and pleaded for help. And it came!

The wonderful Olivia over at LivLoveLaugh is guest posting for me this week as a scramble around, trying to keep my head attached to my body. (Ah!) I’m uber (uberuberuber) grateful for her help. She is a wonderful young woman, a great writer – and I was super excited to see she was a fellow homeschooler! Olivia and I have a lot in common, between that, a lot of writing, photographing every bit of everyday life, being college students, and, of course, the most important: giving our pets adorable nicknames. I love her posts, particularly her Tuesday Loves posts, Blogger University posts, and her lists posts (such as this gem here on five garage sale items you never have to buy retail…this yard-sale gal loved that one!). Please check out her page, I know she’d love the love – and I’d love to give back to her for helping out!

You can find her at her blog as well as on Twitter and Instagram @livlivinglife, and on FB @livlovelaughblog

Since it is a special holiday, it’s only fitting we have a little something sweet! Olivia is about to show as a delicious, simple and quick strawberry shortcake that will satisfy that craving. Keep reading to see it - but, be warned, you might want to make sure you have strawberries on hand! Her pictures will leave you wanting for some of your own. 

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Strawberry shortcake is a dessert that just screams summer to me.

After a long day at my internship, I’m not usually in the mood to cook anything special. That’s where this dessert comes in: it’s easy, quick, and delicious.

First, let’s bake the strawberries. This is a technique that seems to have gotten popular on Pinterest lately, so I looked at a few recipes and decided to try it.

Ingredients:

            Strawberries: however many you’d like! I used one quart.

            Sugar (optional): a couple of tablespoons

            Vanilla extract (optional): two or three teaspoons

This actually couldn’t be easier. Take a carton of strawberries—they were on sale at our grocery store this week for half off!—rinse them, and cut them up. You can slice them, but I decided to go with the quick and dirty quarters.

Strawberries, quick & dirty quarter style - Katie

If you want them to be a little more flavorful and bring out the natural sweetness, put them in a bowl and let them marinate with a little sugar and some vanilla extract for about half an hour. I did this while I cooked the rest of my dinner.

Vanilla & sugar

Giving the strawberries a little soak so that their
personality will make more of a punch ;).
- Katie

Then, spread the berries on a baking sheet and stick them in a 350-degree oven for roughly twenty minutes. They’ll get a deeper red, juicy and extra sweet, even more delicious than fresh berries!

Since it’s probably warm outside (I know it’s warm in my apartment!) making a quick shortcake and baking it at the same time as the strawberries means having the oven on for less time so you can stay cool! You could always buy shortcake, but it tastes so much better homemade and takes only basic ingredients. I used this recipe you pretty much just cut the butter into flour and sugar, add milk, stir and bake.

To assemble:

Layer shortcake, baked strawberries, and whipped cream. Drizzle the strawberry juice on top.

The finished product -- it just makes you want to
eat it up right now. Where's my fork?! - Katie

Voila! An easy, fresh, delicious summer dessert.