Strawberry Shortcake

I had already sliced up some strawberries (1 lb)  and marinated them with a dash of balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of sugar.  They were sitting in the fridge waiting to be macerated .  I was going to serve with vanilla ice cream to my son for dessert tonight.  Below, they just went into the fridge so the syrup hadn't developed yet.

Then I wondered how hard it would be to make homemade shortcake?  I found this and halved the recipe.  I made them individually in a jumbo muffin tin.

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/8 cup unsalted butter
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 cup milk

I preheated the oven to 350°F.

I creamed the butter the sugar first, then put the egg and vanilla in and mixed well.  I stirred in dry ingredients.  I combined the milk slowly until the dough came together nicely. It was thick and I had no idea if that was correct or not...

I used cooking spray on a 6 tin muffin pan.  I divided dough evenly (a heaping tablespoon in each tin) and then put in the oven for 25 minutes.

I cooled on rack.  I took them out of the pan and then left them on the rack to cool completely.  The looked like dense pucks.

They weren't beauties to look at, so I got my son to taste one when they came out.  He was happy.  He said they were like vanilla cake with a crust.  He said they would be great with the strawberries, so I trusted him.  

Since they were small, I sliced 2 in halves and put the bottoms in the bowl.  I saw there were air holes in them, but had no clue why.  Not sure how to have prevented that from happening?  Maybe a mixer instead of using a spoon?  I'm sure it's a novice baking error...

I spooned on some berries and then two half scoops of ice cream.

I put the lids on and topped with more strawberries.

To finish I dolloped on whip cream and served.

My son rated the dessert 10 out of 10.  If I was going to make shortcake again, I'd try a different recipe, but I'm glad it wasn't an epic fail.