Strawberry Shortcake

Here is the finished strawberry shortcake I made. This strawberry short cake starts with two layers of pound plus cake, featured on yesterday's posting. It is then spread with generous dollops of homemade creme fraiche, and bombarded with fresh, juicy, sweet strawberries. I finished off the top by piping some more creme fraiche, and decorated with some whole strawberries. There are many different kinds of strawberry shortcakes out there, some begin with a base of a tea biscuit, angel food cake, golden yellow cakes, white cake, pound cake, and even chocolate cake. Usually strawberry shortcake contains generous amounts of fresh whipped cream (or whipped topping, although it is not as good). Sometimes cream cheese, ice cream, or vanilla icing is added or used instead. And of course the strawberries are the star of the dessert. All they need is to be washed, sliced, and sweetened with just a touch of sugar, and they are good to go! Strawberry shortcake is often very simple, and does not have any complex flavors added. Just strawberry and vanilla flavors basically compose this dessert. Strawberry shortcake can also be made as one large, impressive shortcake, or as several miniature individual shortcakes. Both work out nicely. I personally really enjoy strawberries with angel food cake and a little vanilla ice cream, as it is nice and light. It is especially nice when the cake is lightly toasted. It reminds me a bit of marshmallow in flavor. We also used to get individual round golden cakes which we filled with strawberries. Any kind of cake that is not too heavy goes well with strawberries; I should try them with chiffon or sponge cake sometime.
The creme fraiche recipe I used is really just heavy cream that is whipped up with a little granulated sugar. Then some sour cream or unflavored yogurt is added with vanilla extract and a little brown sugar. This cream is a bit lighter than heavy cream alone, and has a nice flavor and airy texture. It's vanilla flavor goes nice with the subtle vanilla flavor in the cake, and since the cake turned out a little bit heavy, the light and airy cream balances out the cake too. The strawberries tie the entire dessert together, and make it strawberry shortcake. They just needed a touch of sugar, and they were good.