How to make strawberry shortcakes and a book too

Hello!  Here are some strawberry shortcakes.   And I am writing a book.  Yes me!  I am!

I can't believe I just wrote that but it's true.

Let me tell you how it happened....


Back in March this year I signed up for Holly Becker's from Decor8 Blogging Your Way e-course.  It was wonderful and I learnt a lot.  If you want some direction with your blog then I highly recommend you sign up right now. 

One of the things Holly said that has stuck with me is "you never know who is reading your blog" and boy is that true.


Anyhoo, one of the final homework assignments was to write what you wanted to get out of your blog.   So thinking big I wrote, that one day, in my wildest dreams, I would like to write a book.   To be honest, that is a quiet dream I've had for many years, but one I chalked up with other crazy dreams such as living in Provence for a year or buying an island.  You know, I never seriously thought it would ever happen.  Crazy or not, I shared that dream about wanting to write a book in my homework and it felt good to get that dream out there, if only to my fellow e-class mates.


I swear, it only took two weeks before I received an email from the publisher at Random House asking me to call for a chat.  Whoah Nelly that was fast!


Over the next months, after quite a bit of work writing sample chapters, nutting out concepts and ideas, along with lots of championing from many people at Random House, that book dream became a reality.  


And now I am writing a book.  And I feel truly astonished and incredibly humbled by this opportunity.  


The book will be part memoir, part recipes, with lots of photos, telling the story of our life in Tasmania.  An expanded version of my blog really, with more details and more trials and tribulations on what it was like to pack up your city life and move to the countryside of a small southern island.
 Plus plenty of good things to eat.

It will be due for release early 2015, which seems miles away but it's not really in the book publishing world. 


I am so very excited about this project, actually thrilled beyond measure, that a dream so out there has actually come true.  Now I just have to write it.  

So I would like to thank you dear readers, for visiting my blog and for your kind comments and emails. Believe me when I say without you, this wouldn’t be happening.


My only regret is..... that I didn't include spend a year in Provence and buy an island on my blog homework back in March.  Who knows where I might have ended up.   


And Holly was right, you never do know who is reading your blog.

To celebrate the season, and the signing of the book deal, which I celebrate at any opportunity, yesterday the first of the strawberries appeared, so we made strawberry shortcakes.   Just like this.....

Strawberry Shortcakes 

makes 12 shortcakes 

for the shortcakes

325 grams plain flour

half a teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

3 tablespoons caster sugar

125 grams unsalted butter

1 large egg (beaten)
1/2 cup of Greek style yoghurt

1/4 cup of milk

for the filling

250 grams strawberries, sliced

1 tablespoon caster sugar

250 ml double cream, whipped

Method

Preheat the oven to 220ºC

In a medium bowl, toss strawberries with sugar and let sit for 30 minutes to bring out their juices.

Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder the sugar together in a bowl.

Rub the butter into the dry ingredients using your fingertips to crumble the butter into the flour, until the butter is the texture of course breadcrumbs with some pea size bits too.

Whisk the egg, yogurt and milk together in a small jug or bowl, then pour into the flour mixture a little at a time, using a fork to mix until it comes together.  (go easy, you may not need all of the liquid)

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and roll gently to a thickness of about 2cm.

Dip a 5cm round cutter in flour and cut out as many rounds as you can, then work the scraps back into a dough and re-roll to finish cutting out 

Place the shortcakes about 2 cm apart on a lined baking tray

Bake for 10-15 minutes, until golden-brown, and let them cool slightly on a wire rack.

Slice biscuits in half horizontally. Spoon strawberries and their liquid over bottom halves. Spoon whipped cream onto strawberries, and replace top halves of biscuits.  (I actually didn't whip the cream, as you can see by the photos, so it's a bit messy, but I really think you should!) 

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