okay I really couldn't think of anyway to put corn in the title. Cornbread strawberry shortcake? Strawberry Corncake? Strawberry Shortcake but make is Corn? See?! None of them sounded right. Also I didn't want anyone to read the title and instantly be turned off because this IS SO GOOD. Is the combination a little weird? Maybe? But once you try it you will totally understand. So I'm just calling it strawberry shortcake because once you make this one you won't want a traditional strawberry shortcake again.
Imagine dense, sweet cake with a good chew (thanks cornmeal) topped with a tangy and not-too-sweet cream cheese frosting and a big ol' pile of juicy fresh strawberries. The dense cake coupled with a layer of tangy frosting and pop of bright strawberry screams summer. Plus she's beautiful.
The cake is pretty simple to make. Whisk together your dry ingredients and then add a pat of butter and break that in so that it crumbles in the dry mixture. Then add all the wet ingredients and give it a good stir (don't worry about the lumps!) Bake that off in a 8 or 9 inch round pan.
To make the frosting, put your cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla into the bowl of a stand mixer and whip it until a creamy frosting forms.
That just leaves the berries! Quarter up some fresh strawberries and mix them with some sugar and lemon juice. This is called maceration. Maceration is just the breaking down of a fruit to soften it and allow it to release its natural juice. Both the lemon juice and sugar help to do that in this case which makes the berries sweeter and creates a nice syrup that can be served over the cake. Make sure to let the strawberries macerate for about 30 minutes before serving them!
This cake is best made right before it is eaten. Since the berries release a lot of liquid those should be placed on top right before serving. You can make the cake layer and frost it the day before if needed. I would suggest storing it in an airtight container in the fridge and then bring back out to room temp about 2 hours before serving it. Right before serving scoop the berries on top!
While this cake does come together fairly easily, it is a few more steps than other dessert options. But I think the wow factor of this cake makes up for the extra steps, I mean imagine setting this down on the table for dessert. All the oohs and ahhs will erase any memories of the few extra minutes in the kitchen.
As always, if you make this recipe let me know on insta @lauren_lavin
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