How to make delicious strawberry shortcake without biscuits

Strawberry shortcake isn’t actually strawberry shortcake if you use biscuits! This easy four-ingredient shortcake recipe is the perfect base for my classic strawberry shortcake.

Biscuits aren’t shortcake

After college I worked at a restaurant that was known for its biscuits. During strawberry season, people would stop by on their way back from picking strawberries with their kids and pick up a dozen biscuits. Add some whipped cream and they had an easy strawberry shortcake with practically no work.

But I never liked the flavor of buttermilk biscuits in desserts. Some people claim that it’s the contrast—the tartness of the buttermilk against the sweetness of the strawberries and whipped cream—that makes the dessert taste great. I have two problems with this.

One, it’s too much of a contrast. I wanted something a little sweeter. But I didn’t want to go too far in the other direction, either! Lots of recipes for strawberry shortcake use actual cake, like angel food cake or pound cake. Sweet on sweet topped with sweet would be too much.

Two, I thought biscuits were too hard for this purpose. Even the fluffiest biscuits are still closer in texture to bread than to cake. Perfect for an egg and cheese breakfast sandwich, something that needs to be solid enough to hold together when eaten by hand. But I didn’t need anything that sturdy for a dessert that would be eaten with a fork.

I don’t even remember how I looked up what shortcake actually was, because this was pre-internet (at least as we know it). Maybe I looked in my mom’s cookbooks? But I learned that shortcake was basically a sweeter version of biscuits, usually with milk or cream instead of buttermilk.

And so, for years, I used shortcake recipes. I liked the flavor—kind of like a biscuit, but sweeter—but I still didn’t love the texture, and the recipes were similar to making biscuits (cutting in the butter, etc.).

Shortcake evolution

Then, last year, I started making southern biscuits with White Lily Self-Rising Flour. It was an easier recipe, without the need for a pastry blender. And since I’d bought a lot of the flour, I started using it in other things, too, seeing what it did to textures. I’d already experimented with making those biscuits without buttermilk, using either milk or cream, so I started adding a little sugar to see how that would taste, and it was good!

Eventually I tried it without the Crisco, and I finally had what I was looking for: a texture closer to cake, with a flavor that reminded me of sweet biscuits! No cutting in butter, no cutting out biscuits, not too sweet, and not too solid. Perfect.

I also started making my shortcake, well, shorter, so that I could do away with the traditional preparation of splitting the cake and putting the strawberries in between (I always though that just made it harder to serve and eat). This version is now much quicker to assemble than the recipes that use biscuits, so you can do it quickly even if you have guests over!

The last piece of the puzzle was adding a little bit of almond flavor. Every once in a while, when I end up with a lot of strawberries, I make jam. And I always make almond scones to go with them, because I think the flavors go really well together. I suspected they would go well together in this recipe too, and I was right!

Strawberry Shortcake FAQs

Why is it called shortcake?

Anybody who watches The Great British Baking Show has probably figured out that what they call “short crust” is what we call pie crust. And like a nice, flaky pie crust, a “shortcake” comes apart in little pieces, as opposed to regular cake, which is more spongy. 

What is shortcake made of?

There’s no definitive answer to this. Some people make it with butter, some with cream, some even add eggs. But most agree that shortcake is sweeter than biscuits, while still having a crumbly texture. My recipe uses just four ingredients: self-rising flour, sugar, salt, and cream.

What can I use instead of self-rising flour?

If you don’t have self-rising flour, you can make a substitute. But first, you should understand what self-rising flour is: it’s a combination of low-protein flour, baking powder, and salt.

The closest substitute for a cup of self-rising flour would be a cup of cake or pastry flour (which are both lower in protein than all-purpose flour), 1-1/2 teaspoons of baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt.

If you don’t have cake or pastry flour, you can use all-purpose flour (plus the baking powder and salt), but you might need to add a little more liquid to your recipe, since higher-protein flours absorb more liquid. And the higher protein might result in baked goods that are a bit less tender, but depending on the recipe you might not notice.

How do you keep strawberry shortcakes from getting soggy?

You really can’t. Strawberries are wonderfully juicy, and while letting some of that juice seep into the shortcake is delicious, if you let that happen for too long, the cake will just get soggy and unappetizing. You really have to assemble strawberry shortcake shortly before you want to eat it. But don’t worry, there are other strawberry desserts that you can make ahead of time with no problem! 

Which leads me to another question…

What is the difference between strawberry cake and strawberry shortcake?

Strawberry Cake is something that can be made completely ahead of time, since the strawberries are baked into the cake, as opposed to Strawberry Shortcake, where the strawberries are placed on top of the shortcake, which has already been baked.

Can I make strawberry shortcake the night before?

While you can definitely make the actual Strawberry Shortcake cake recipe the night before, and cut the strawberries, and combine the cream with the sugar and vanilla (but not beat it yet), the rest shouldn’t be started until about 20 minutes before you’re going to eat dessert.

If you really want to get more done beforehand, you can make stabilized whipped cream.

Do I have to refrigerate strawberry shortcake? How long can it sit out?

Because of the whipped cream, strawberry shortcake really shouldn’t sit out for too long. Regular whipped cream will only stay airy and whipped for a few hours at most, and being at room temperature could shorten that time even more. Being at room temperature will also help to make the strawberries mushy.

In fact, if you don’t think you’re going to eat all of the strawberry shortcake immediately, you might want to make individual portions as needed, instead of preparing the entire cake at once. But if you do have leftovers, they should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator.