Wishing for Summer

Well okay, my NordicWare shortcake pan isn't new, I got it for Christmas. I used it for the first time last week when a friend came over for dinner. I apologized because I used a boxed cake mix as a base for dessert. I do keep boxed cake mix in the house for emergencies like this and for cake decorating practice. It's not even the kind of mix that uses butter! (If I had time to soften butter for cake mix, I could make a cake from scratch.)

Anyway, now it's time to give my shortcake pan it's due. I decided to use the recipe that came with the pan. I have also purchased a second shortcake pan because I want to be able to use a regular cake recipe for this (one pan holds about three cups of batter.) You can freeze the extra cakes and your dining emergencies won't really be emergencies.

Let's knock out the batter. The directions suggested that I dump everything into a bowl and mix. I decided to take a more traditional approach. I creamed the butter and sugar first. Since I was working with a small amount of batter, I used my hand mixer, Sparkle.

I added the egg and alternately added the flour and milk (I used buttermilk.)

Fill the cups 3/4 full and bake. Here's the deal. I followed the recipe (with the exception of substituting buttermilk for milk) and I portioned the batter out properly (or so I thought). Why then do I have these misshapen cakes?

I pulled the excess from the cakes while they were in the pan. I tried to slice the bottoms off some. Pulling the extra off worked much better.

The scraps made an excellent snack!

My last complaint is that I can't get good browning in this pan. This is my second attempt, and the cakes are very light, yet done according to the toothpick test. When you look at the cakes on the packaging, they are perfectly browned and you can see the decoration from the pan. I promise I will cook until they are brown the next time. I think a pound cake batter might work better too.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Pop the cakes out and cool on a wire rack.

Here's the fun part: fill and eat! I scored some blueberries, blackberries and Trader Joe's lemon curd. I already had the whipped cream. To assemble, add a couple of tablespoons of lemon curd to each cake and nestle the berries in the curd. Top with whipped cream.

Isn't it cute? And yes, it tastes as good as it looks. It's 37 degrees right now. This is as close as I can get to sitting out on the balcony in the warm sun with a good book and a big glass of sweet tea! June needs to get here quickly.

Tools of the trade:

• KitchenAid Hand Mixer
• NordicWare Shortcake Baskets Pan