Mother’s Day is this Sunday and I have a fun mini dessert in celebration of moms and berry season, Berry Basket Shortcakes!
I used a medley of berries for these basket shortcakes and my Nordic Ware Shortcake Basket Pan that I used to make my Mini Easter Basket Cakes, fun for a mini dessert and to spring into baking. ;)
The pan makes 6 mini 3-inch cakes, in addition to being ideal for shortcakes, you could fill the top of the basket with any combination of filling, fruit, and/or whipped or ice cream. If you don’t want to invest in a pan, you could make berry basket shortcakes using ready-made shortcake dessert shells from the grocery store.
I used the recipe that came with the pan for theses mini cakes. They only require 3 cups of batter, just enough for 6 cakes. Whatever cake recipe you use for these cakes, make sure to only fill the molds 3/4 full to avoid overflowing.
I used Baker’s Joy (non stick baking spray with flour) for the molds. The cakes bake in about 20 minutes. Let them cool 7 minutes in the pan and then turn out on a wire rack to cool completely. If your shortcakes rise above the pan you can trim them after they cool to level them.
After the shortcakes cooled, I added a little confectioners’ sugar glaze of powdered sugar, milk and vanilla extract, to drizzle on the cakes before filling them.
To make the basket handles, I used honeysuckle vine, ‘Japanese’ honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica, that grows wild here in North Carolina. I removed the larger leaves from the vine and placed the ends in the cakes for handles. The honeysuckle vine is flexible and prolific. You can harvest honeysuckle flowers and use the nectar to infuse simple syrups and even vodka for cocktails.While the flowers and stems are safe you do not want to use any honeysuckle berries on a vine which can be poisonous if you don’t know what variety of vine you have. If you don’t have access to honeysuckle or vines that are food safe, you can form a handle from floral wire and attach a vine and/or flowers to the wire. Wrap the ends of the floral wire with plastic wrap or aluminum foil before inserting them in the cakes to make your basket handles.
I filled the shortcakes with an assortment of berries~ strawberries, blueberries and blackberries. I added some flowers from the blackberry vines that were growing alongside the honeysuckle that I picked for a pretty garnish for the cakes.
Give your berries and cake an additional dusting of powdered sugar if desired and serve~
Happy Mother’s Day and Berry Season ♥
A note about honeysuckle: There are nearly 180 honeysuckle species with about 20 native species indigenous to the US. Most ornamental garden honeysuckle is not edible. Avoid the berries and vines which can be poisonous if you can not identify your variety of honeysuckle. You can read more about honeysuckle and the varieties that are edible, here.
Very festive! Berries are plentiful and good for you and this is a good way to eat your berries and indulge in a little sweet!😎🌴 Happy hump day!🤗
I miss North Carolina and all of the wild vines and flowers. Thanks for showing them. The black berries won’t produce ripe berries until later in the year but showing the blooms reminds me of picking blackberries along the edge of the woods when I was young.
I have one of those shortcake pans but lost the recipe that came with it. I wish you had included that recipe.
You always have the most beautiful tables and treats.
Hi Betty, I uploaded the photo of the recipe so you’ll have it :)
Too, too, too adorable Mary! I would love a berry filled shortcake basket for Mother’s Day! 🍓
What a darling dessert you’ve made, Mary, and made good use of your Nordic Ware pan again. I much prefer cake for my berries verses actual biscuit-like shortcakes, and I’d be so happy with these. Thanks for the beautiful photos, too!
These little basket cakes are adorable! They will be beautiful addition to my Mother’s Day Brunch table. I love the drizzled icing glaze on the shortcakes, the perfect sweet touch indeed! You are the Queen of celebration ideas. Thank-you for this delightful post.
Now that is a sweet treat, it looks so yummy – Love those berries! Happy Mother’s Day to you and all the good ladies who follow along. Thanks Mary.
Oh, the possibilities… franki
The baskets are so cute! However, my family wouldn’t like the vines or floral wire attached. Is there any type of food items that could substitute for the vine?
Serve them plain like regular strawberry shortcake or for kids you could add a licorice rope for a basket handle.
Honeysuckle basket handles -cute and original
How PRETTY, Mary!!! Love, love, love that first photo taken from above!! You had to be standing on a step stool to get that one. LOL
I have saved the photo with the recipe, just in case I can’t find the pans before Sunday…thank you so much for sharing that.
I, too, thought a thin, red licorice rope might work as a handle. GMTA
I have the fresh berries and wish there were six of these little cakes sitting on my counter to be filled. They look delicious. I love using the Nordic Ware pans. Don’t have this one, but will pick one up if I find it.
Have a beautiful day, Mary!
Beautiful photos and what a lovely idea for a sweet dessert! Always enjoy your blog first thing in the morning!
This post with the honeysuckle takes me back to my childhood. My grandmother had a huge bush or two in her yard that was safe to eat and I would spend a lot of time out there sucking the nectar out. When I smell honeysuckle in the spring/summer around here in Alabama, I feel like a kid again. Thanks so much for the beautiful dessert recipe as well. I’m off to look for the basket pan.
Mary, I love the presentation and of course, I love any berry! How clever to use honeysuckle.
You never fail to come up with that special something!
Very pretty and those baskets look like they will melt in your mouth! A must try for me! I’m also thinking of filling with lemon curd, yum!
They really turned out pretty Mary:@)
Love these berry baskets. I’ll be making them. Your ideas are great. I just bought the bunny pan I saw here and they turned out adorable. Thanks for all the lovely pictures and ideas.
Your creativity knows no bounds! These are so pretty, and I love anything with berries. We are going out on Sunday with our daughter and our son-in-laws family so there will be a bunch of us. They (the in-laws) picked the place and not really looking forward to a buffet at a casino but……it will be wonderful to be with my sweetie!
Another wonderful delight to serve on any occasion for any of the special people in your life…What could be better for Mother’s Day than a beautiful basket of berries that can only put smile on your face and in your tummy!! The use of the honeysuckle was genius…as always! Have a great day Mary!
I love your blog, but I can only see the right side pictures. The main pictures are brown with the ?. I don’t have a problem with any other blog. Do you have an answer? Would love to see it all. Thanks, Bee
Hi Bee, it sounds like it might be a problem with your browser, which one are you using? Try clearing your cache and make sure your browser is up to date:
https://browsehappy.com/
Berry beautiful, Mary! The graceful baskets look so pretty on the French wire stand, and I love the blue and white linen. So fresh and festive.
Very lovely post :)))
Mary, thank you to continuing to inspire us! These baskets are so darling!