Jon Rowley's Strawberry Short Cake at QA farmers market

On a great sunny and warm afternoon, Queen Anne Farmers Market played host to a large turn out of happy Satellites. The Market was slow to start so Jon Rowley who was scheduled to do the first food demo of the day was looking a little worried that his 3 PM food demo was not going to have the needed attention.  It wasn't a problem as he organized his ingredients, the seats filled and the show began. Kids were front and center and the rest of us older kids ready to see what can make a Strawberry Short Cake better than it already is.

As Jon gave us some great background information as well as filled in details on technique and local history, we too got big eyes as we were able to see and smell some of the great ingredients that go into his "rustic" short cake.  Jon took local Shuksan strawberries, those gnarly looking, short seasoned berries with the intense color and wonderfully tart/sweet/earthy taste, macerated them with a little sugar until their juices filled the bowl. Then he showed us how to make a wonderfully easy biscuit that magically appeared from the "grill". Notice the irregular shapes and the ruffly mixed dough.

Jon then mentioned some interesting techniques that he developed to make the biscuit take on a beautiful brown crust on it's peaks, cream brushed on the top before baking. Then he proceeded to demonstrate the "Architectural" assembling of the cake with all its components.  Something so simple, berries, biscuit, freshly whipped cream came together into a roller coaster of flavors. It was a lesson for all of us, the best products treated with care and understanding, make for a great desert with very little effort.

By the way, all the "kids" were not disappointed with their taste of Jon's Short Cake.