I’ll admit I have bought the sponge cake things… but usually just to eat them straight when that’s the cheapest cakelike thing I can find (I can’t help it, for most of the year I have a major sweet tooth in addition to my carnivorous habits).

But now you’ve gone and made me hungry again. Strawberries have to be the best fruit in existence. Followed by pomegranites and black raspberries straight off the bush… Though I have to admit, I don’t like the monstrous huge strawberries they have stocked in a lot of places now. Give me a lot of little ones – they’re sweeter, juicier, and have more flavor to them.

Angelfood cake is indeed supposed to be pretty much left alone, Karyl. But, because it is low in fat, folks will use it for the base of a shortcake. And if that is the reason, I don’t quibble much, but I just don’t like it.

Those spongecakie puck things–I used to like them well enough as a kid, but they tend to make me shudder now. I think it is the fake vanilla taste that gets me now, or maybe the overpowering sweetness of them.

That is the thing about the scones as a base for shortcake–they aren’t very sweet at all. That gives a good contrast with the berries.

As for berries; I am with you. Size, however, matters less than where and how they were grown. Locally grown, freshly picked berries will be riper and sweeter by far than any you get in the grocery store that have been shipped from California. The texture is also better.

For a black thummb and lack of a garden, alas, I must stick to grocery store berries. Unless somebody can get me out to the farmer’s market once in a while. I need to do that at least once… I have been told many enticing things about it…