Hello, my friends!
Welcome to all the new people this week. Thanks for your ongoing messages about The Bittersweet Bakery Cafe! What a fun year this has been so far…
Tomorrow is officially the first day of spring in Australia, so that means one thing: strawberries!
In case you’re interested in making the easiest and best Strawberry Shortcake (the old-fashioned way), I thought I’d share my recipe with you here. Loads of strawberries, a very easy-to-make short, biscuity base, and sweetened cream.
So delicious. Just 15 minutes to bake!
Strawberry Shortcake
For the filling:
5 cups sliced strawberries
1/4 cup white sugar
To decorate the top:
1 cup halved strawberries
2 cups heavy cream, whipped, sweetened with sugar to taste
For the cake:
2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter (125 grams)
1 beaten egg
2/3 cup milk
Method:
Mix the sliced strawberries and sugar in a bowl and set aside.
Preheat oven to 220 C or 450 F. Line a 20 cm round cake tin with baking paper.
For the cake, stir together the flour, baking powder and sugar. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Combine egg and milk, then add to flour mixture Stir just to moisten.
Spread the dough in the tin.
Bake for 15-18 minutes. Watch it carefully — your oven is hot. Cool in a pan for 10 minutes. Remove.
Split into two layers. Add sliced berries, then a generous layer of whipped cream. Place the other layer on top. Spread on more cream and decorate with halved strawberries. Serve immediately to all the people who will love you for it.🍓🍓🍓
I hope you have a beautiful Sunday. Have some fun out there if you can…
Love, Catherine x
P.S. The Fun Stuff!
What readers have been loving lately:
From Pat: “I signed up to your newsletter because I absolutely loved your novel, The Bittersweet Bakery Cafe. I couldn't put it down but I didn't want it to finish!”
Victoria is loving “letting myself take a B this summer instead of an A plus. It was HARD. For example, I had to write a wedding ceremony for a long time special relationship. I didn’t have the bandwidth for “the most amazing ceremony in the world.” I could do a very good one. B energy is hard hard hard for me. I’m home now and that B energy has left me room to get my life together in a way I want to start the fall—cleaning my house, writing to you, reading my book. Everything was beautiful being really good. It didn’t need to be the best ever.”
Becca said she’s loving the chance to have “a warm and delicious potluck dinner with five friends from her church 💗.”
Tanya is “on a watercolor kick right now—so relaxing, and I’m finally brave enough to frame one of my own paintings!”
Sarah is “Currently loving slow weekends with a big pot of soup simmering on the stove and a good book in hand.”
Joyce is loving “Board games nights with friends. We’ve rediscovered Scrabble and it’s way more competitive (and hilarious) than I remembered.”
Emma – “Cold swims in the ocean! Never thought I’d say that, but I swear it’s the best mood booster.”
And some fun links from me: more on the soleus push-up (do it seated!), an artist who makes realistic tiny replicas of pets from needle felt, and for my Canadians and Americans, Maggie Smith’s beautiful poem ‘First Fall’ about introducing a child to autumn.
And if you want to kitchen dance and love Australia, try this song with Missy Higgins from Bran Nue Dae — such a fun film.
