I was at the grocery store the other day and they had the most delectable looking strawberries that I just couldn’t resist. I got them home, sliced them up and added a little (okay, to be honest, probably a lot) sugar and let them marinate for a while. I really, really wanted Strawberry Shortcake, but in order to have that it meant another trip to the grocery store for shortcake and whipped cream (prior, proper planning–not). I got to thinking what I could substitute for the shortcake and whipped cream to take care of my craving and came up with my own an “it’ll do in a pinch” version.

I used a white cake mix and baked it according to the directions. After it had cooled, I took some of the strawberries and most of the sugar juice and put it in a saucepan to heat. I mixed about 2 tablespoons of corn starch with just enough water to mix it into a creamy texture (you may need to add more or less depending on the amount of liquid you have in your pan) and added it to the strawberries and cooked them until the juice had thickened. Using the round handle of a wooden spoon, I poked holes all over the cooled cake and then poured the thickened strawberry and juice over it. I spread the strawberries around to make sure the juice got into all the holes poked in the cake. I then spooned the remaining strawberries onto the cake.

I was still missing a very important ingredient in my mental strawberry shortcake, the whipped cream. Not having that, I figured the next best thing was butter cream frosting on top the strawberries. I have to admit I didn’t measure anything. I know it takes very little liquid to overpower the powdered sugar, so after I added probably about a cup and a half of powdered sugar, about a teaspoon of melted butter, I added the milk just a tiny bit at a time. When I liked the consistency, I drizzled the icing over the strawberries. Voila! Strawberry Poke Shortcake.

Ingredients

Strawberries
Sugar
White Cake Mix (plus eggs, oil, water according to cake mix directions)
Corn Starch
Powdered sugar
Butter or margarine
Milk
Vanilla