Shortcake

shortcake is a cake made “short”—in its old English sense meaning “easily crumbled”—by the incorporation of fat such as butter, lard, or cream into the dough. The Good Huswifes Handmaide for the Kitchin (London, 1594) contains a recipe “To make short Cakes,” in which the finest flour is worked with cream or butter, sugar, sweet spices, and egg yolks, so that “your paste wil be very short, therefore yee must make your Cakes very little.”

There are regional differences in the use of the words “shortcake” and “shortbread” and in the differentiation, if any, between the two. In Britain (especially in Scotland) shortbread is the more common term and specifically refers to a sweet, buttery pastry with a crisp, cookie-like texture. See shortbread. In the United States, shortcake usually indicates a cake made with a rich, soft, scone- or biscuit-like texture, which is then split and filled with fruit.