Happy New Year! My family is in town for the holidays from the Philippines and that means that my little cousins, Maxie and Cale, are here too! One day when I was watching them, Maxie asked me to help her make something. I looked around my pantry to see something quick that I can make, and upon seeing pound cake mix, (I know it’s cheating haha) frozen strawberries, and cans of whipped cream, I decided to make strawberry shortcakes! Since the box did not say how long to bake the cakes for in cupcake tins, I looked up a recipe for pound cake cupcakes for reference. The Betty Crocker recipe that i used is linked below.
When we were baking, I tried to find ways to have Maxie and Cale feel included. I found that if you pre-measure all of the ingredients and have the children add them to the bowl, they feel like they made the batter. I also had them pour the batter into the cupcake tray and put the strawberry compote on top of the finished cakes. Once we were all done, we dug into the shortcakes together. :)
For the recipe, I kind of made it up on the spot. While I know this isn’t a strawberry SHORTCAKE, I still liked the name better than strawberry pound cake.
*A quick note before the recipe starts- Due to oven variation, I baked my cakes for 15 minutes instead of 20-25. I recommend checking your cakes around every five to seven minutes to be sure that you don’t over-bake your pound cake!
Ingredients:
-Prepared pound cake batter
-One package of frozen strawberries
-Whipped cream
-A generous amount of sugar (I used demerara crystals, but plain castor sugar is fine too)
-A scant teaspoon of cornstarch
-A few tablespoons of water
Method:
1. Prepare cupcake pans by butter and flouring them- I used Baker's Joy spray
2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit
3. If desired, color your prepared batter
4. Pour batter into the cupcake tins
5. Into a preheated oven, put in your tins for 15-25 minutes, checking every five
6. In a medium pot, warm sugar and strawberries for one minute
7. Stir in one tablespoon of water and cornstarch
8. Add more water as needed
9. Reduce until it can be separated by a spoon when run through the compote
10. Put compote on the finished cake and serve with whipped cream
11. Enjoy!