Birthday Strawberry Shortcakes

We've always had cakes for birthdays, which is entirely fine - except my stomach seems to celebrate birthdays a lot more passionately than the birthday-persons. I prefer to skip the meal and go straight for my slice of cake (plus the left overs - which usually is more than half the cake - which I gracefully eat with my fingers the next morning, it's a little like the walk of shame when I leave the kitchen)
Anyway, after Chocolate cake after lunch, my dad requested a light Strawberry Shortcake for his birthday dessert. "Real butter or fake?" my sister asked. REAL. "Real cream or low fat *gasp". REAL. "Real shortcake? Or the cake-type?" What? Had I been eating faux strawberry shortcakes my entire life? Aren't they layers upon layers of fresh whipped cream, fluffy vanilla sponge cake and strawberries?
Let me educate. Real strawberry shortcakes are actually sweet butter biscuits baked, cut in half, and layered with fresh whipped cream and macerated strawberries - I added blueberries for my dad's big Five-Five, you know, anti-oxidants and all.
These were so simple and I'll definitely do this again for a small dinner party.


From The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

Fruit
2 quarts strawberries, hulled (you can hull the berries with one of those spiky edged piping tips)
6 tablespoons sugar

Shortcakes
2 cups all-purpose flour
5 tablespoons sugar
1tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick unsalted butter
2/3 cup half-and-half
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 large egg white, lightly beaten

Whipped Cream
Whipping cream 1 cup
Sugar 1 tablespoon
Vanilla tiny splash

1. Crush 1/3 of the strawberries with a fork or a potato masher. Slice the rest of the berries. Sprinkle sugar all over the berries and lightly mix the berries until sugar is mixed in. Let it sit at room temperature - watch the berries start to release all it's juices. You can squeeze some lemon juice on top if tartness is what suits your palette...The "maceration" will take around half an hour, but you can let it sit for longer, they won't complain.
2. Preheat the oven to 218C or 425F.
3. Sift together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. The cookbook recommends pulsing the ingredients together with a food processor, but I don't have one so I just sifted. I'm thinking the pulsing part has more to do with the next step though...
4. You're supposed to scatter cut-up pieces of butter and then process until the mixture looks like a coarse cornmeal - BUT, because I don't own the machinery, Jess (my sister) suggested that I just use a coarse cheese grater and great the cold butter. It worked beautifully!! Remember, it's butter but can easily be mistaken for grated cheese if you're cooking on an empty stomach. It's not cheese. After grating the butter into the flour, sort of toss the bowl around so that the butter pieces get coated in the flour and leave it alone while you mix together the next part..
   
5. Blend together the half and half with the whole egg and pour into the bowl with the flour/butter.
6. Stir everything together lightly with a rubber spatula until large clumps form.
7. Turn the mixture onto a lightly floured counter and knead lightly.
8. I formed my own circles and placed them onto a baking tray, covered, and refrigerated until dessert time. It's good to get the butter really cold again before you bake them so it bakes into a fluffier biscuit and doesn't just sink into itself.
   
9. You're supposed to brush the tops with the beaten egg white and then sprinkle with the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar but...umm...forgot.
10. Bake the shortcakes until golden brown (12-14 min).
11. While you're waiting for them to cool, whip up the cream. Whip together the cream, sugar and vanilla in a chilled bowl with an electric mixer on low speed until frothy and the sugar has dissolved (1 min.) Increase the speed to high and continue to whip until doubled in volume and soft peaks form.
    
12. Assemble by cutting biscuits in half - generously fill with strawberries, then a healthy dollop of whipped cream, and cap it with the top of the biscuit.