How to Make a Mistake, Great - Strawberry ChocoChip Shortcake

Wanna know how to turn a Strawberry Tallcake into a strawberry shortcake? 

Invite the two little guys shown below playing in my cabinets into your kitchen one Saturday morning and you may quickly find out. 

 

I awoke Saturday morning with the grandest of intentions to produce a dessert that would please my husband... who has been asking for a cake all week... and my son... who has been asking for chocolate chip cookies all week... and me, who could eat a good fruit dessert 365 days of the year.

I should have known that my kitchen karma was off. It started off without me being able to find my second "good" cake pan. 

One thing led to another and in my haste to dodge little hands that were destined to reach into a hot oven while I was checking the layers for doneness, I apparently checked more of the edge of the cake, rather than center. Fifteen minutes into cooling I saw the center sink on one of the layers. I made a mental note: gonna need to frost that section a little more (c'mon... tell the truth... you've done it, too... right?) 

Still hoping for the best, I turned the layers out onto the cake rack for further cooling. 

Then I noticed the layer with sunken top, also ended up with stuck bottom. Next mental note: that trick of sugaring a pan for a quick bread rather than flouring does NOT work with cake layers. Apparently, I don't bake well when I have "companions" in my kitchen. 

As for the cake itself, in my baking world, two strikes and you're out. A sunken top and a stuck bottom just don't yield the kind of cake layer worthy of Saturday afternoon praise. So I regrouped and this is what I ended up with.... 

 

...Strawberry ChocoChip Shortcake.

Honestly, it was more than enough sweet goodness any of us were prepared to enjoy. I constructed using fresh whipped cream (yes, I'm an R.D. who uses whipped cream. This is a dessert... it's not the basis of my diet); a pint of fresh strawberries that I quartered and macerated with a touch of sugar and a splash (and I mean little splash since the kiddos were enjoying, too) of vodka; and layered with the one surviving cake layer, which was just a basic yellow cake with about 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips stirred into the batter. 

I make a lot of things in my kitchen. And sometimes, I make mistakes. Luckily, this mistake was great. 

Artfully eating well, 

~Regan