Today I’ll share a recipe for Layered Strawberry Dessert — it’s a classic. White cake, strawberries, sauce, and whipped cream. And if you don’t want to slave in a hot kitchen during these hot summer days, I’ve included some shortcuts to help speed things along for you. Enjoy!

For the Strawberry Sauce:
1 pint strawberries, washed with stems removed
1/4 cup honey
Water

Top the strawberries and put them in a sauté pan with the honey and enough water to cover them. Start out with a little honey, then continue to add it as you finish the sauce.
(*Strawberries vary in sweetness so it’s best to taste the mixture; when it tastes adequately sweet to you, that’s when you know you’ve added the right amount.)
Bring the berries to a boil until softened, then transfer to a blender and puree.
Pour the puree back into the sauté pan and slightly thicken with a cornstarch slurry.

For the cake:
Shortcut Alert – buy an angel food cake at your favorite grocery store… or if you want to make one from scratch, follow these instructions:

4 oz sifted cake flour
12 oz granulated sugar
12 egg whites
1 tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Combine the flour with half of the granulated sugar
Whip the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar at high speed until three times its volume
Gradually add the remaining sugar until it will hold soft peaks
Slowly incorporate the sifted cake flour and fold it in by hand
Fold in all remaining ingredients
Pour batter in greased 10″ pan and tap to release any large pockets of air

Bake at 325 degrees until golden brown ( 30 – 40 min ).

For the whipped cream:
1 c. heavy whipping cream
1/4 c. powdered sugar
2 T. vanilla

Pour one cup of heavy whipping cream into a mixing bowl.
Mix on high speed until peaks just barely start to form and you can see a change in color between the peaks.
Add sugar and vanilla at this point then continue to mix for no more than 30 seconds (or you run the risk of creating butter).

Assembling the dessert
(Give the cake and the strawberry sauce plenty of time to cool)

Cut angel food cake into bite size cubes, and put a few in the bottom of a hurricane glass
Layer in some of the strawberry sauce
Drop in some fresh strawberries (washed and cut)
Layer in the whipped cream
Repeat as many times as will fit in your glass.

Chad Borner is the Sous Chef at Lied Lodge & Conference Center at Arbor Day Farm. Find more great recipes online in the Lied Lodge Recipe Box.