Strawberry shortcake is quite possibly the best summer dessert. It’s got fresh fruit, warm and flaky biscuits, and my personal favorite—whipped cream. If you’re feeling saucy, maybe you even add a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

I love strawberry shortcake not just because it’s easy to make (and totally delicious), but because it’s nostalgic.

I associate summer with the smell of sunscreen and chlorine at the community pool. Those old multicolored popsicles that came in plastic tubes like Go-Gurt. With days so hot your ice cream cone melts before you even get the first lick. Those nights lit up with the glow of fireflies. And of course—strawberry shortcake. 

Now, being gluten-free, I had to do things a little differently than my great-grandma did. She always made fresh biscuits or used store-bought angel food cake (one of her favorites) to go with the strawberry topping. And if we’re being honest, she also always bought a can of Reddi-wip, and we’d all take turns sneaking whipped cream straight from the can.

I love fresh whipped cream. I don’t think the canned stuff even comes close (unless you really want to whip it) so I definitely didn’t pick up a can of Reddi Whip. And while I do love biscuits, this version of shortcake actually came from a disastrous attempt at making lemon blueberry muffins.

Stay tuned for that recipe—it’s currently under construction.

I had this idea that I was going to make lemon blueberry and strawberry cheesecake muffins to take to work. I’d just started a new job and wanted to impress my coworkers. So I pulled two different recipes from cookbooks I owned and modified them to be gluten-free—just to see what would happen.

Well… the batter ended up more cake-like than muffin-like and so thick it would’ve taken a machete to get through it.

If you’ve ever bought gluten-free flour, you know—it’s expensive. I was not about to waste that batter, even if it wasn’t muffin-worthy. So I dug through my cupboards and found these tiny antique Jello tins we picked up at a flea market over Memorial Day weekend. At that point, I figured I had nothing to lose. The worst-case scenario? I’d set the Jello tins on fire. They were a dollar. I would be sad but not exactly heartbroken.

I scooped the batter into the tins like they were mini cake pans and placed them directly on the oven rack—baking them just as I would have if I were making muffins.

What came out of the oven were beautiful miniature cakes, each with a fun design on top from the ridged Jello molds—perfect for strawberry shortcake.

To be honest, I can’t even take credit for the idea. I was pulling the not-muffins from the molds when my husband walked in and asked how things were going. I calmly (I’m lying, I was most decidedly NOT calm) told him I had no idea. He took an experimental bite and declared that we needed to make strawberry shortcake—coincidentally one of his favorite desserts (the others being chocolate-covered strawberries and apple pie).

That evening, we made what can only be described as experimental strawberry shortcake—and to our surprise, it was the best version either of us had ever had. The batter, meant for muffins, was dense enough to give you the nostalgic feel of biscuits, cake-like enough to echo angel food cake, and the texture was perfect for soaking up all the delicious strawberry juice without getting soggy or ruining the whole dessert.

It was perfect. And if you have read any of our other posts you know by now that we love it when an accidental kitchen mishap turns into something wonderful. It’s kind of our thing.
Dinner rolls become biscuits. Tart filling becomes ice cream topping. And now, muffins become shortcake. It’s a strange world.

Anyway, we genuinely hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we enjoyed accidentally making it. Happy Eating! 

Keep reading below for the full recipe.