How to Make Easy Strawberry and Other Berry Shortcakes

Every day is a baking day at The Prepared Pantry. We bake, we test, and we share the good stuff with our customers in the store.

We made cakes using our Vanilla Bean Baby Cakes mixes and then topped them with fresh or frozen fruit, sauces, and flavored whipped cream. When we got them right, they were luscious.

The Vanilla Bean Baby Cakes mixes are cream cake mixes— denser and moister than the fluffy mixes from the store. They are about halfway between the fluffy mixes and a pound cake. Technically, they’re a cream cake. With more substance, we think they are more suited for these desserts. They hold together, and there is a better balance, more cake to go with your toppings.

Get Vanilla Bean Cakes here or look for denser cakes, like pound cake mixes, at your grocer’s.

Vanilla Bean Cake with Raspberries or Blackberries and Lemon Sauce

Lemon and raspberry is a great combination. We made the lemon sauce from a mix and then added raspberries. We concluded it was better not to mix them, but rather, pour the lemon sauce over the cake and add the berries.

We tried several flavors of whipped cream. We liked lemon cloud whipped cream the best.

Directions:

1. Make the cake according to package instructions.
2. Make the lemon sauce according to package instructions.
3. Make the lemon whipped cream according to the recipe below.
4. Assemble the dessert.

Vanilla Bean Cake with a Blueberry Lemon Sauce

Lemon and blueberry is another classic combination. We liked how the berries mixed right in the lemon sauce. It made a beautiful pink and magenta sauce.

Lemon cloud whipped cream was really the only choice for this dessert.

Directions:

1. Make the cake according to package instructions.
2. Make the lemon sauce according to package instructions, and mix in the blueberries.
3. Make the lemon whipped cream according to the recipe below.
4. Assemble the dessert.

Vanilla Bean Cake with Fresh Strawberries and Lemon Sauce

If you like strawberry shortcake, you’ll like this. The strawberries are just coming on; they’ll be a little better later in the season. Still, this was very good.

The dessert in the image was made with lemon sauce. If you prefer buttermilk syrup any of the following would work well:

• Buttermilk Syrup
• Coconut Syrup
• Maple Buttermilk Syrup

We didn’t try it but I bet a good chocolate sauce would have been very good. Since we used lemon sauce, we stuck with lemon whipped cream.

Directions:

1. Make the cake according to package instructions.
2. Make the lemon sauce according to package instructions and top with strawberries.
3. Make the lemon whipped cream according to the recipe below.
4. Assemble the dessert.

Vanilla Bean Cake with Peaches in Caramel Sauce and Caramel Whipped Cream

Buttermilk syrup tastes like a cross between a caramel syrup and a butterscotch syrup. We added frozen peach slices right to the syrup. That was a mistake. It thinned the syrup too much. It tasted great, but it was too thin.

It’s best to use fresh peaches or let the frozen slices thaw a bit and then pat them dry. Pour the sauce over the slices and the cake. Caramel whipped cream was dynamite with this.

Directions:

1. Make the cake according to package instructions.
2. Make the buttermilk syrup according to package instructions.
3. Make the caramel whipped cream according to the recipe below.
4. Assemble the dessert, pouring the sauce over the cake and peach slices.

Whipped Creams to go with Your Vanilla Bean Cakes

Here are the recipes that were mentioned above. You can click here for more flavored whipped cream recipes.

Lemon Cloud Flavored Whipped Cream Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons lemon flavor
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons meringue powder

Directions:

1. Whip the cream to soft peaks.
2. Add the sugar, flavor, and zest and continue whipping

Caramel Flavored Whipped Cream Recipe

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons caramel flavor
• 2 tablespoons meringue powder

Directions:

1. Whip the cream to soft peaks.
2. Add the sugar and flavor and continue whipping.

(Updated from March 1, 2016)