Shortcake

Lore & Background

The name "shortcake" comes from the word "short," which describes a crumbly or crispy texture achieved by adding fat like butter or lard. The first known use of "short" in this way for a cake appeared in 1588, in the second printed English cookbook, The Good Huswifes Handmaid for Cookerie in her Kitchen. That recipe was for an unleavened biscuit made from flour, cream, sugar, egg yolk, and spices. Strawberries entered the picture with a "Strawberry cake" recipe printed on June 1, 1845, in The Ohio Cultivator.

Eliza Leslie of Philadelphia helped spread it in her 1847 book The Lady's Receipt-book. Those early "Strawberry cakes" were thick, unleavened cookies split and layered with fresh strawberries, then topped with a hard icing of sugar and egg white. The arrival of baking soda and baking powder in North America during the 1800s changed baking dramatically, allowing for the American biscuit-style shortcake. By the 1850s, leavened shortcakes had become the standard base for strawberry cakes, and the term "strawberry shortcake" took hold.

By the 1860s, cream was being added. A June 1862 issue of the Genesse Farmer described a "Strawberry Shortcake" made with layers of soda biscuit, fresh berries, sugar, and cream. A similar recipe appeared in Jennie June's American Cookery Book (1866) by Jane Cunningham Croly. The first known cookbook by a Black woman in the United States, A Domestic Cook Book (1866) by Malinda Russell, also includes a recipe for it.

Reader's Guide

Shortcake is typically made with flour, sugar, baking powder or soda, salt, butter, milk or cream, and sometimes eggs. The dry ingredients are blended, and then the butter is cut in until the mixture resembles cornmeal. The liquid ingredients are then mixed in just until moistened, resulting in a shortened dough.

The dough is then dropped in spoonfuls onto a baking sheet, rolled and cut like baking powder biscuits, or poured into a cake pan, depending on how wet the dough is and the baker's preferences. Then it is baked at a relatively high temperature until set. Strawberry shortcake is a widely known dessert made with shortcake. The shortcakes are split and filled with sweetened strawberries and whipped cream.

In North America and Asia, sponge cakes filled with strawberries and whipped cream are also referred to as 'strawberry shortcake' despite not being made with shortcake. Though strawberry is the most widely known shortcake dessert, peach shortcake, blueberry shortcake, chocolate shortcake and other similar desserts are made along similar lines. In some recipes the shortcake itself is flavored; coconut is one addition.

Did You Know?

• In the United Kingdom, Shortcake biscuits are a dry sweet biscuit eaten as a snack or served with tea, lighter in texture than shortbread.
• Xiting Shortcake is a Chinese baked good from Jiangsu Province, made since the Qing dynasty with high-quality pale wheat flour, premium lard, and sugar, and is made up of 18 layers.