Tropic of Mom's Not-Too-Short Strawberry Shortcake

It's strawberry season here in Florida, and in the fruit section, pints and pints of Plant City strawberries are stacked high -- and for a great price. You just have to buy them, so it's a good thing both my kids love to eat strawberries.

My friend Mary loves strawberries, too, especially strawberry shortcake. She told me one time that when she was pregnant with her first baby, all she wanted to eat was strawberry shortcake. Literally. Her husband got upset with her and made her eat other foods, but he didn't know she had a secret stash of strawberry shortcake! Yeah, all you have to do is stick it in the fridge with the label "brussel sprouts," and you're sure to keep all that berry-and-cream goodness for yourself. Mary proved you really can gestate a baby on strawberry shortcake -- and a really cute and smart one, at that. Last week when Mary had some friends over for dinner, she asked me to bring dessert -- specifically, strawberry shortcake. I'd made it for her a couple times before and always tweak the shortcake part of the recipe, trying to find the right balance between the short and the cake. See, traditional shortcake is kind of like a dismal biscuit -- it's short (kind of dry and hard). But next to those stacks of strawberry pints in the stores are often little discs of rubbery sponge cake. I have been striving for the balance between the two, and this time I think I got it. Mary thinks so too.

Tropic of Mom's Not-Too-Short Strawberry Shortcake

Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
Two pints of fresh strawberries, sliced
Your favorite whipped cream or whipped topping

Directions
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Spray an 8-inch cake pan with Pam Baking. Seriously, no one is paying me to say that -- I'm a believer in Pam Baking. Then take a mixing bowl and mash the butter and sugar together. When that's mixed, add the eggs, then stir in the milk. Fancy baking people will tell you to sift all your dry ingredients together and then add them to your wet mix, and you can do that if you want -- that's just not how I roll. (Roll! Get it? Heh. Har. Um....) So however you feel like it, add the flour, baking powder and salt and mix the ingredients until you have a thick batter. Pour it into your cake pan and bake it for about 40 minutes. You might want to check on your shortcake now and then, because that makes it feel loved and special, and you don't want your shortcake to get lonely by itself in the oven. You'll know the shortcake is done when it gets that nice golden-brown color.

Let the shortcake cool after you bake it, and then slice it in half horizontally. Slather your favorite whipped cream or whipped topping on one layer, then add some strawberries. Place the second layer on top and add more whipped cream and strawberries. (I know it doesn't look like that's what I did from the photo up top, but that truly is a two-layer strawberry shortcake in my picture.) Then you just share your not-too-short berry creation with your friends!