Ingredients

Cake

• 2 cups of flour
• 2 teaspoons of baking powder
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 6 eggs (seperated)
• 2 pinches of cream of tartar
• 2 ½ cups of sugar
• 1 cup of softened butter, unsalted
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 1 cup of milk

Note: if you are using large eggs you may need to use extra flour.
Note: This recipe makes two cakes so if you would like less just
divide the recipe and it will still make a good amount

Strawberries

• 1 carton of strawberries
• A bit of vanilla extract
• Roughly a cup of sugar
• Bowl of water (can be any temperature)

Whipped Cream 

• 2 ¼ cups of 35% cream
• 4 ½ tablespoons of sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons of vanilla extract

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Directions 

Cake

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius)
2. Butter two 8-inch cake pans and line inside with parchment paper
3. In bowl, combine flour baking powder and salt (you can set this aside for later)
4. In a stand mixer bowl, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks form
5. Gradually add 1 cup of sugar to egg whites and cream of tartar, beat until stiff peaks form
6. In another bowl, beat remaining sugar, butter, egg yolks and vanilla
7. Gradually add dry ingredients and milk to sugar and butter mixture
8. Stir a quarter of the meringue into the mixture
9. Gently fold the remaining meringue into the mixture
10. Pour batter into pans 
11. Bake for 35 minutes or until fully baked through 
12. Let cool on wire rack

Strawberries

1. Mix sugar and vanilla extract in water
2. Chop up strawberries 
3. Place strawberries in water
4. Let sit for fifteen minutes
5. Drain the water from the bowl, leaving the strawberries

For  whipped cream just whip all ingredients together until stiff peaks form

Assembly​

1. Cover one of the two cakes in the whipped cream
2. Place slices of strawberries on top of the cake (I usually use the 'uglier' strawberry slices and save the prettier ones for the outside)
3. Place the other cake on top of the decorated one
4. Cover the cake in whipped cream
5. Arrange strawberries on top

Narrative 

I don’t remember what time it was, but I know it was dark outside. Natasha, and I stood at the self-checkout. We had four items: strawberries, cream of tartar, whipping cream and a bag of candy I don’t remember. We sat there in the quiet store, waiting for them to come back. 
My friends, Natasha and Exer, myself and my younger sibling, Ezra had been planning on attempting a strawberry shortcake recipe I had found online. The three of us (Exer stayed home) walked to the Metro near my house to get any missing ingredients. 
We took a long time getting the ingredients since we couldn’t find the cream of tatar but eventually, we made it to the self-checkout. We scanned our items only to find that I had forgotten the credit card. At this point we began to freak out. My phone was dead and Natasha and Ezra hadn’t brought their phones so we couldn’t text Exer to bring us the card. Ezra volunteered to run back home, get it and run back to the metro. I was hesitant since it was a long walk for an eleven year old to take when it was dark out. They assured me that they’d be okay and I let them go. 
Natasha and I waited for them to get back for what seemed like an eternity. Maybe it just felt like that since both our legs hurt though. 
Ezra returned, card in hand. We tapped it on the machine and it declined. At that point I considered snapping my own neck. The machine said that we could try inserting it but we didn’t know the pin. Thankfully, Ezra grabbed their phone when they picked up the card. We called my mom and she told us the pin. The purchase went through and we went home. 
Only a couple minutes after returning home, the pizza my parents ordered for us arrived. For context: earlier we had tried ordering pizza but it didn’t go through for whatever reason. We had asked my parents to order it for us and we texted them the order. 
The order was wrong. We chased down the pizza guy and told him he had given us the wrong order but then he read my mom’s name off the order he had given us. Turns out my mom hadn’t checked to see if we wanted anything in particular and ordered what she thought we wanted. We ate our disappointing pizza in silence. 
When we were done eating, we made the cake which was so much more stressful than I anticipated since none of us knew what we were doing. 
Natasha checked in with it twenty minutes before it was supposed to come out of the over and it was slightly burnt. We took it out and decorated it. It looked awful. 
We all sat down with a piece in front of the TV. I didn’t want to try for fear that it would taste awful but it turned out to be the best strawberry shortcake I had ever had.
I have since made this recipe many more times and I have improved in baking and decorating it (actually I never decorate it, I get my boyfriend to do it since I suck at it). Point is: this recipe is really special to me and I will always treasure it. 

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