One of our favorite parts of summer is the abundance of fruit at the local farmers markets. We are so lucky to have such a wide variety of great farmers that come to the Ann Arbor Farmers Market every Wednesday and Saturday all summer long. The best tasting fruits are the ones that are freshly picked – when they are ripe or close to ripe (depending on the fruit) and handled with care. You can also find multiple different varietals when you go directly to the farmers and find out how wide ranging the flavors are within one type of fruit. While berries of all kinds and stone fruits like cherries, peaches, and plums taste amazing on their own, we love using seasonal fruit to make shortcake! Deli Managing Partner Grace Singleton says, “I’ve had so many types of shortcake over the years, and now that all the different berries and cherries are showing up at the market, it’s the perfect time to try a few different variations and find your favorites — or just keep changing it up as the mood strikes you.”
Here are 6 suggestions from Grace that riff on the classic strawberry shortcake, using seasonal fruit atop a base of cake or cookies we sell on the Deli shelves.
Prepping dessert for a picnic or potluck? A buckle is a kind of coffee cake and is a great shortcut for some stellar shortcake. Slice the buckle into thin but sturdy pieces, then layer with fresh berries and whipped cream! Grace says, “Growing up we always had some sort of red white and blue dessert (sometimes it was a jello mold!) when we got together between Memorial Day and July 4th — and this version of the shortcake fits the red, white and blue theme for sure.” Zingerman’s Bakehouse makes Blueberry Buckle from Memorial Day through Labor Day with a bounty of wild Maine blueberries, sweet butter, a touch of orange and cinnamon and a delectable butter-crumble, “buckled” crust.
This one is Grace’s go-to base layer for her birthday shortcake. “When I was little,” Grace says, “every year we went to my grandmother’s around my birthday in July and I’d get a big angel food cake with fresh strawberry cream frosting. It had to be made no more than 24 hours ahead and eaten within 24 hours to really enjoy it before it sort of melted away into itself!” Zingerman’s Bakehouse’s angel food cake, called Jake’s Cake, is made in a loaf pan with fresh egg whites, cane sugar, a little flour, and lots of vanilla extract and beans. The soft, pillowy texture of the cake allows it to absorb the delicious juices from macerated fruit (sprinkle a bit of sugar over your fruit of choice, then let sit for an hour or so — the sugar brings out the juices in the fruit!). Because the cake absorbs so much liquid, you’ll want to keep the fruit separate until you’re about to serve to keep things from getting soggy.
You can’t go wrong with a classic. Zingerman’s Bakehouse has these in rotation special for the summer every year. They’re made with Guernsey heavy cream and are perfectly tender, but sturdy enough to hold heaps of fresh fruit and whipped cream. If you want to make your shortcake extra special, add some Ground Vanilla Beans, maple syrup, or Pink House Mint Syrup to your whipped cream instead of sugar.
A bit more of an avant garde take on shortcake, but super delicious! These work great if you’re interested in making an icebox cake with your fruit. Zingerman’s Bakehouse makes Glasgow’s Graham Crackers by freshly milling their own flour from organic soft white wheat from Kischnick Farms in Vassar, MI. They also use cinnamon, a bite of ginger and local honey from Gearig Apiaries Honey in Ithaca, MI. Simply layer these graham crackers with whipped cream and sliced fruit in a standard loaf pan and freeze. The moisture from the fruit and the whipped cream will soften the graham crackers into a more tender, cake-like texture. A top-notch summer treat.
Shortbread? Shortcake! These bite-sized delights are made by Rustic Bakery and are available in Vanilla, Meyer Lemon, and Pecan. Any fruit would go well with these, but fresh raspberries really shine when paired with the Meyer Lemon shortbread.
An oldie but so, so goodie. The tender crumb of this cake from Zingerman’s Bakehouse is thanks to the sour cream in the recipe. On top of being delicious, the cinnamon-nut swirl you’ll see when you cut into this cake is also gorgeous. Like the Blueberry Buckle, this pairs wonderfully with fresh berries. You could even add a dash of espresso powder to your whipped cream to put the “coffee” back in Coffee Cake.
We always have Blueberry Buckle, Sweet Cream Biscuits, and Jake’s Cake from Memorial Day through Labor Day, so you can enjoy these treats all summer long! Some other items on this list have year round availability–while we shop at the farmer’s market all summer long, a treat reminiscent of summer in the middle of winter isn’t so bad with frozen or supermarket berries. And as always, we’re happy to help you find any ingredients you might need for any special spins you’re putting on your shortcakes this summer.
