Recipe: One-Bowl Strawberry Shortcakes

Meghan Splawn
Meghan Splawn
Meghan was the Food Editor for Kitchn's Skills content. She's a master of everyday baking, family cooking, and harnessing good light. Meghan approaches food with an eye towards budgeting — both time and money — and having fun. Meghan has a baking and pastry degree, and spent the first 10 years of her career as part of Alton Brown's culinary team. She co-hosts a weekly podcast about food and family called Didn't I Just Feed You.
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published May 25, 2017
summer
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Credit: Maria Siriano
Bake a vanilla sheet cake to quickly cure your strawberry shortcake craving.

Serves12

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(Image credit: Maria Siriano)

Strawberry shortcake is a springtime staple that can hardly be improved upon, unless you can find a faster way to bake a shortcake. Enter: the one-bowl vanilla cake. Mixed in one bowl and baked in a sheet pan, this cake can be baked up from start to finish in less than an hour. Once baked, cut the cake into rounds, top with fresh strawberries and whipped cream, and boom — near-instant strawberry shortcakes for your you and your lucky family and friends!

(Image credit: Maria Siriano)

Sheet Cake Shortcake

I’ve waxed poetically about sheet cakes before, but it bears repeating that sheet cakes bake fast and serve more people with less cleanup. The same is true for sheet cake shortcakes! Instead of waiting an hour for a pound cake to bake, you can mix, bake, and build your shortcake in less time. Plus, you can cut the cake into rounds, squares, or something fun and festive and have a near-perfect strawberry-to-shortcake ratio that most cakes can’t match.

Have leftover cake scraps? You can crumble the leftover cake scraps into cake crumbs for topping these shortcakes, ice cream, or your morning yogurt. Or freeze the cake scraps for their future life as cake pops.

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One-Bowl Strawberry Shortcake

Bake a vanilla sheet cake to quickly cure your strawberry shortcake craving.

Serves 12

Nutritional Info

Ingredients

For the cake:

  • Cooking spray

  • 3 cups

    all-purpose flour

  • 1 3/4 cups

    granulated sugar

  • 1 1/2 teaspoons

    baking powder

  • 3/4 teaspoon

    salt

  • 4

    large eggs

  • 3/4 cup

    canola oil, or melted and cooled unsalted butter

  • 1 cup

    whole milk

  • 1 tablespoon

    vanilla extract

For the strawberries:

  • 2 pints

    strawberries, sliced

  • 1/4 cup

    granulated sugar

  • 1 tablespoon

    freshly squeezed lemon juice

For the whipped cream:

  • 2 cups

    cold heavy cream

  • 1/2 cup

    granulated sugar

  • 1 teaspoon

    vanilla extract

Instructions

  1. Make the cake: Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and heat to 350°F. Coat a 13x18-inch rimmed baking sheet (also known as a half sheet pan) with cooking spray; set aside.

  2. Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Add the eggs, oil or butter, milk, and vanilla and mix with an electric hand mixer on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes.

  3. Pour the batter into the baking sheet. Bake until the cake is lightly browned and springs back when gingerly pressed with a finger, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool the cake on a wire rack while preparing the strawberries.

  1. Make the strawberry filling: Place all the ingredients together in a large bowl and toss to combine. Set aside for 30 minutes at room temperature.

  2. Use a 3-inch round cutter to cut the cooled cake into 24 rounds.

  1. Make the whipped cream: Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Beat with an electric hand mixer on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form.

  2. To assemble each shortcake, place 1 cake round on a plate. Top with a scoop of strawberries and a generous dollop of whipped cream. Finish with a second cake round.

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Baking
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easy
milk