Fluffy, lightly sweetened shortcakes filled with fruit and a fresh orange cream. These Orange Berry Shortcakes are a delicious, unique twist on shortcake!
Summer Desserts
One of my favorite things in life is to feed people dessert. I love eating dessert myself, but to get to the end of the meal and watch people smile while they have a piece of cake or pie that I have made, fills my heart.
And when I hear something like, “I don’t usually like desserts” or, “I don’t usually like this type of thing,” I feel like I’ve succeeded in life.
When making desserts, I like to use seasonal ingredients, and be creative. Making something traditional like brownies is fun, but I love to serve things that blow people away.
Last month I decided that I wanted to make shortcakes with an orange twist. It took a few tries to get the product I wanted, but it was totally worth it.
Orange Berry Shortcakes
These shortcakes are actually quick and easy to make. Yet they look and taste so sophisticated! This is a great summer dessert to make if you don’t have much time, or want individually prepared portions.
The Shortcake
Making shortcake is sort of like making a biscuit. The less you touch the dough, the better. To mix the ingredients for these, I used a food processor with the dough attachment. This allows the butter to stay cold while the ingredients are mixing.
When cutting the dough, try to get as many servings as possible out of each roll. The more you roll the dough, the less the cakes will rise.
Want a salty twist?
The recipe I have posted below uses 2 teaspoons of kosher salt. However, during my development of this dish I also made another batch using 1 tablespoon of kosher salt. The biscuits with the tablespoon had a unique, salty flavor.
I gave the biscuits to a few people to compare and quite a few preferred the saltier cake against the sweet berries and cream. However, I feel the more pronounced salt taste may be a little much for many, so I’m leaving it at 2 teaspoons and encouraging you to give the heavier salt option a try if you want!
Leftover biscuits?
My husband put ice cream in some leftover biscuits to make ice cream sandwiches. It was a delicious idea!
Fruit
For this recipe I used oranges, strawberries, and blueberries. Raspberries and blackberries also work well if you want even more options or flavors.
When serving shortcake, many people add sugar to strawberries before serving. I tried this once but did not care for it because, 1.) doing so made the berries soggy after a couple of hours, and 2.) the sugar-added berries did not save well, and 3.) if you can believe it, it was almost too sweet for me.
If you like extra sweet fruit and don’t want to save the berries, you may consider adding 1-2 teaspoons of sugar to the strawberries about 30 minutes before you serve them.
Cream
When you are making whipped cream, to ensure it is as stable as possible, place your bowl and mixer in the freezer for 10-15 minutes before using them, and make sure that your whipping cream is very cold.
For the cream, I decided on a lightly orange-flavored whipped cream. It’s sweet with a hint of citrus that tastes like a summer party in your mouth!
However, if you want another topping option you could consider:
- Plain greek yogurt mixed with a tablespoon or two of honey.
- Vanilla greek yogurt mixed with orange zest.
- Store bought whipped cream.
- Vanilla whipped cream.
- Ice cream.
These Orange Berry Shortcakes are an easy to make dessert that is sure to impress!
Orange Berry Shortcakes
Ingredients
Shortcakes
- 3 3/4 cup all purpose flour plus ~2 tablespoons for working surface
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 cup sugar plus 2 tablespoons for dusting
- 2 tablespoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter cold
- 1 1/2 cups whipping cream
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Fruit
- 2 medium sized oranges peels removed and cut into bite sized pieces
- 16 ounce package of strawberries tops removed and cut into thin slices
- 1 pint blueberries
Cream
- 1 cup whipping cream
- zest of 1 medium sized orange
- 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
Instructions
Shortcakes
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Whisk together flour, cornstarch, 1/2 cup sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Using pastry cutter, two knives, or a food processor, cut in butter about 1 teaspoon at a time.
- Using a food processor fitted with dough attachment, or a large spoon, mix in whipping cream and vanilla extract until a ball of dough is formed.
- Lightly flour a working surface. Roll dough out on surface to be about 3/4" thick. Use a 2 1/2" biscuit cutter to cut biscuits. Place biscuits on prepared baking sheet, leaving biscuits about 2 inches apart. Sprinkle tops of biscuits lightly with sugar. Bake for 12-13 minutes, or until tops are golden brown.
Cream
- Place metal mixing bowl and mixer whisk attachment in freezer for 15 minutes.
- Remove bowl and attachment from freezer. Add whipping cream, zest, and powdered sugar to bowl. Use mixer with whisk attachment to beat until stiff peaks form, about 5 minutes.
Serving
- Cut biscuits in half horizontally. Spoon fruit onto bottom biscuit half. Cover fruit with orange cream and top with other half of biscuit.
Disclaimer: All nutritional information provided on this website is an estimate only and is not guaranteed.
If you enjoyed these Orange Berry Shortcakes, you should check out these other SugarSpicesLife recipes:
Blackberry Raspberry Cobbler
Strawberry Custard Ice Cream
Lemon Strawberry Cake
Chocolate Orange Banana Bread
Orange Cinnamon Rolls
Links to items used to make this recipe:
I use this with the food
processor dough attachment.
