Strawberry Shortcake Waffles

*Author’s Note: I don’t really cook by recipes. In my mind, recipes are more like… guidelines than actual rules. So, when making things like the strawberry topping for these waffles, I measure rarely and taste often. These are rough estimates – you’re just gonna have to be a bit adventurous and go for it, then see if it’s yummy. :) Also, these pictures are pretty awful, but you work with what you've got, & right now all I have is my built-in on my BabyMac.

Strawberry Topping

2 ½ cups fresh strawberries, sliced
½ cup sugar (maybe a little more or less, depends on how ripe your berries are)
1 tblsp. light Karo syrup
1 fresh lemon

Slice your strawberries into a medium sized bowl and add sugar. Add the lemon juice slowly, starting with the juice of half the lemon – you should add about 1/3 cup of juice. Stir in Karo and set the strawberry mixture aside and let it’s work it’s magic – you’ll have strawberries and a lovely syrup in no time.

Whipped Cream

1 half-pint carton whipping cream
2 tsp. vanilla (the good stuff, like Molina Mexican Vanilla)
1 tblsp. sugar

With hand beaters or very strong arms, whisk cream in a medium bowl until the cream thickens – it should hold the swirls of your whisk. Add sugar and vanilla and whisk until peaks form. (When you lift your whisk out of the bowl, it should pull the cream up into a little wave.)


Waffle Batter

1 Betty Crocker Butter Recipe Yellow cake mix ( it is essential that you get the butter recipe)
1 ¼ cup water
2 eggs
1 stick butter
non-stick spray

I experimented a bit with the ingredients in the cake mix and found that leaving one egg out of the cake mix directions yielded a batter that was thick but fluffy and very delicious. Although I made mine in a stand mixer, I would suggest mixing the batter by hand – mine was perhaps a bit too fluffy. Grease your waffle iron liberally before making each waffle. It took about a ½ cup of batter to fill my Belgium waffle maker. Because this batter is much more delicate than a traditional waffle, the waffles are a bit tricky to remove from the waffle maker; I had to take mine out one section at a time, but it’s worth the effort. ☺

Top warm waffles with strawberries and whipped cream and ENJOY!