Strawberry shortcake is an easy, impressive, and well-loved dessert. Topped with sweet juicy strawberries, decadent cream, and made with a crumbly, buttery, sweet biscuit-like cake, this gluten free strawberry shortcake variation is an absolute summer favorite. *If you love strawberry shortcake, you may also love the special party variation in the post below – using this recipe to make Gluten Free Strawberry Shortcake for mini dessert shooters.
Ingredients
The cake for this recipe is made from gluten free all-purpose flour*, salt, baking powder, sugar, shortening (or ghee), egg, and vanilla. The ingredients give it a sweet buttery flavor.
What should you top strawberry shortcake with?
This gluten free strawberry cake is simple and delicious. Toppings will include sliced strawberries and whipped cream, requiring only a few ingredients: strawberries, sugar, and heaving whipping cream (+ optional vanilla and powdered sugar).
*How to pick a gluten-free flour that tastes great:
The easiest way to choose a delicious gluten-free flour for this recipe is to go with one that specifies “1-to-1” on the package. This type of gluten free flour can be substituted in baking recipes for an equivalent amount of all-purpose flour. These flours work particularly well and have typically been tested in baking recipes for flavor, texture, and more. If you go with a regular all-purpose gluten free flour, that will likely work fine as well, but due to taste differences, I prefer to use ones that do not include any sort of bean flour in the ingredients.
How do you know when strawberries are ripe? How do you select the best strawberries?
Delicious strawberries will be a bright, deep red and very fragrant. Avoid strawberries once they become slightly mushy (or have any visible signs of mold).
Tip: Mixing strawberries, after sliced, with a little bit of sugar will help sweeten and release the juices.
Tip: Use fresh strawberries when possible. You can use frozen strawberries in strawberry shortcakes, however, I personally prefer fresh strawberries over frozen due to the texture and flavor.
Shortcuts; Tips to Make This Faster, Easier, Healthier, or Tastier
- Use ghee in place of shortening for less processed ingredients.
- Use a gluten free “1-to-1” flour
- After slicing, mix strawberries with a little bit of sugar will help sweeten and release the juices.
- Using fresh over frozen strawberries will provide a better texture.
- When making whipping cream, add powdered sugar and vanilla or even almond extract for a sweet, flavorful taste to your cream.
Make It Special
Love to serve something unique? Just because you’re gluten-free, doesn’t mean your recipe has to be typical. Here are some fun variations to make your dessert just a little bit extra something special!
Mix up your fruits. Substitute all or half of the strawberries for equal amounts of raspberries, blueberries, or peach slices.
Make shortcake hearts with heart cookie cutters. If you’re willing to waste a bit of the dough, you should be able to make about 4-5 shortcakes (depending on the size of your cutter) from the pan of baked gluten free shortcake.
Dust the tops with powdered sugar. Once assembled, dust cakes with powdered sugar. (I like to use a very fine mesh strainer with powdered sugar in it and tap the edge with my finger over top of the shortbreads).
Make the filling chocolate. Add 3 tablespoons of cocoa powder into the whipping cream when whipping it. This will make for a chocolatey cream filling as opposed to the classic vanilla.
FAQ
These are best served fresh/the day they are made. They taste ok on day 2 when pre-assembled and refrigerated, but definitely not as good as day 1. I’d recommend that they be served up to day 3 max, by leaving them unassembled until ready to serve; storing the whipped cream and strawberries separately in the refrigerator and the biscuit pieces in an air tight container or plastic bag.
About 3 days max as suggested above. They taste best consumed within 24 hours.
Unfortunately because this recipe has a cake base, it’s pretty near impossible to make these low carb.
Use a shortening in the recipe as opposed to the ghee option. Substitute non-dairy milk (almond, oat, recipe) for the whole milk. You also need to use a dairy free whipping cream recipe, mine is not, but you could try something like this dairy free whipping cream.
Fun Party Idea
Use this recipe to make Mini Gluten Free Strawberry Shortcake Shooters! Just cut the shortcake into very small squares (if it breaks into crumbs, crumbs are fine and will be delicious as well). Add a layer of shortcake into small, shooter cups, followed by the whipping cream*, and strawberries, and repeat.
*Using a piping bag and tip made it much easier to add the whipping cream into the cups
Serve with mini spoons and decorate as desired (I used a small amount of edible pink glitter and star toppers). These make great party shooters for: holidays, New Year’s Eve, bridal parties, summer birthdays, and 4th of July.
Shown in picture:
More Gluten Free Strawberry Recipes
If you love these strawberry shortcakes, you may also like these super Easy Dark Chocolate Strawberries (+if you’re using them for entertaining, there’s a fun glitter option) or my Strawberry Cheesecake Dip. Or find more gluten free dessert recipes here, like another summer favorite, Gluten Free Peach Cobbler.
Here’s to sweet strawberries, impressive desserts, and regaining our sparkle together,
✧❈✯✦Jenn✦✯❈✧
Gluten Free Strawberry Shortcake
Ingredients
- 2 lbs fresh strawberries, sliced
- 2 tablespoons + 2/3 cup sugar, divided
- 1½ cups gluten free all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 cup shortening (I used organic ghee for a more natural option)
- 1 large egg , room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup whole milk
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream (optional: splash of vanilla, 1 tablespoon powdered sugar)
Instructions
- Grease a 9-in square baking pan. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Mix together 2 tablespoons sugar and strawberries, set aside.
- Sift together flour, salt, and baking powder in a medium mixing bowl.
- In a large mixing bowl, cream together remaining sugar and shortening*. Add the egg and vanilla; and beat until incorporated. Stir in the flour mixture alternately with the milk.
- Add to baking pan. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Allow it to cool. Cut into 9 squares for serving. Use a serrated knife to cut slice each of the squares in half horizontally; making a top and bottom layer.
- Whip heavy whipping cream (with vanilla and powdered sugar if desired). until hard peaks form. Serve in between shortcake square top and bottom with strawberries.
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