Strawberry Shortcake Showdown!: Pound Cake v. Sweet Biscuits

We love strawberries, so strawberry season is a big deal around here. One of our favorite ways to use the seasonal bounty is in strawberry shortcake. But there are so many ways to prepare strawberry shortcake, and we wondered how others might prefer them.

We’ve all seen those neon yellow spongy “dessert shells” near the strawberries in the produce section of the grocery store. But we just couldn’t bring ourselves to buy them. And angel food cake, another frequent base for strawberry shortcake, struck us as not the right fit.

So we looked at other options. We settled on pound cake and sweet biscuits. We each chose one to make, and gathered our family together for a tasting. To complete the shortcakes, we provided both plain sliced strawberries and sugared, macerated strawberries, as well as homemade sweetened whipped cream.

pound cake

sweet biscuits

The sweet biscuits were overwhelmingly the favorite, a great surprise to us both. Tasters mentioned that they did not care for the nutmeg in the pound cake – which they felt competed with the flavor of the berries. The pound cake was softer and fell apart easily when pierced with a fork. The sweet biscuits held together better, even when split and soaked with syrup from the macerated berries. They had a nice texture and crunch from the sugar sprinkled on top before baking. Plus, they looked fancy.

We were also surprised that most of our tasters preferred the sugared and macerated strawberries. (We usually serve them plain.) The tasters liked the sweetness, as well as the moisture the syrup provided.

strawberry shortcake 3

strawberry shortcake 4

strawberry shortcake 5

strawberry shortcake 6

macerated strawberries

What will your family prefer? Try our recipes and find out!

• sweet biscuits
• pound cake
• Macerated strawberries: Mash 1 1/2 c. strawberries. Add 3 T. sugar and 2 1/2 c. sliced berries. Mix and chill for 30 minutes – 2 hours.

strawberry shortcake

~Katie