This strawberry pie was made in about 15 minutes using a strawberry pie kit.

When the Strawberries are This Good, Use Them Everywhere!

In the last few days, I’ve used strawberries on my cereal, on cake, with milk and honey—even on chocolate ice cream.  They’re amazing this time of year. They’re good on everything from salads to shortcakes.

But before we get to specifics, let me tell you how to save time, how to get your berries ready in almost no time.

Time Saver #1.

Use a Strawberry Slicer. You’ll cut your prep time in half and your presentation will be prettier with a strawberry slicer.

Time Saver #2.

Use a Straw. A plastic straw is the quickest, best way to hull strawberries.  You’ll waste less berry than with a knife too.

Strawberries and Cake

This looks like a complicated cake. It isn’t.

It’s a fudgy cream cake mix baked in a 9×13-inch pan.  The edges were trimmed and then the cake was sliced in two to make two layers.

The frosting is simply whipped cream with meringue powder added to retard melting.  It was applied with a round pastry tip.

The filling is a layer of whipped cream with sliced strawberries on top.  The berries were sliced with a strawberry slicer to get nice slices of uniform thickness.

If you want to get fancy, dust the top with chopped nuts. That’s a strawberry designer dessert sauce you see on the plate.

We also make a vanilla version of this easy dessert using a vanilla bean cake mix.

Strawberry Shortcakes

You can load strawberries on cake slices.  In some areas of the country, that’s called strawberry shortcakes.  Officially, it’s not.  Shortcakes are more like biscuits.

Here’s a quick hack: Grab a biscuit mix and add two tablespoons sugar and bake them according to directions.

I love the contrast of the crispy biscuit against the smoothness of the whipped cream.  It’s very much like a strawberry pie with shortcakes substituted for the crust.  (Also shown are bite-sized strawberry shortcake shish-kabobs.) Easy and fun.

About Whipped Cream

If you are making strawberry desserts, chances are you’ll need whipped cream.

The first rule of whipped cream is to use heavy whipping cream.  To be designated heavy whipping cream, it must be 36% fat. We buy 40% fat at Sam’s Club.  The extra fat makes an amazing difference.

The second rule is to add meringue powder.  It makes it last longer without melting.  If you add enough meringue powder, you can change whipped cream into frosting.

I have a friend that makes fantastic strawberry pies.  She makes a great crust and then loads it with fine berries cut into chunks.  She adds a little strawberry glace and tops it all with whipped cream.  If she would add meringue powder, the topping would last all day.

Don’t get stuck in a vanilla rut.  Try different flavors.  My favorites for strawberries are orange whipped cream and lemon whipped cream.  Simply substitute orange flavor or lemon flavor for the vanilla and add a little zest.

That’s all we have time for today.  Watch for more strawberry ideas soon.

Strawberry Stuffed Cupcakes

Surprise! There’s strawberry stuffed in there!

Use a cupcake corer to cut a core out of the cupcakes and stick a strawberry in each.  Cover the top with frosting.

(Since you have fresh fruit in these cupcakes, either serve them right away or keep them refrigerated.)

That’s all we have time for today.  Watch for more strawberry ideas soon.