Look at these incredible strawberry shortcakes!

Strawberry shortcakes are an incredible invention, one of our most popular desserts

First, the Cake

It doesn't have to be plain, white cake. I love the combination of crispy shortcake against succulent strawberries against soft whipped cream.  And here's a shortcut for shortcakes that makes them easy:

To make the shortcakes, simply take a buttermilk biscuit mix and add two tablespoons of granulated sugar to the mix.  Shortcakes are not supposed to be really sweet. Two tablespoons of granulated sugar for eight biscuits will do.

(In the image above, the biscuits have cinnamon chips mixed in. Learn more about cinnamon chip biscuits.)

This is delightful. It's made with a vanilla cream cake mix. Strawberries, cut with a strawberry slicer, are slipped between two cake layers.  

What looks like frosting is vanilla whipped cream with meringue powder added to retard melting.  (Even with meringue powder, the whipped cream will melt overnight.) 

This makes a wonderful dessert.

The secret of the whipped cream

I love whipped cream. But I rarely make vanilla whipped cream. There are other choices. For strawberries, I prefer lemon cloud whipped cream, and my backup is orange cloud whipped cream.

See how to make other flavors of whipped cream.

Here's how to make lemon cloud whipped cream:

• 2 cups of heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar or to taste
• One teaspoon lemon flavor
• zest from one lemon
• 2 tablespoons meringue powder (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together. Whip with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.

The marriage of strawberries and lemon

I love lemon, especially our lemon syrup and sauce, and especially with strawberries. Give me a stack of pancakes covered with sliced strawberries and flooded with lemon syrup. That's heaven.