Macerate the strawberries. Hull and slice the strawberries into a medium bowl. Toss with the 50 g of sugar and the lemon juice, then set aside for at least 30 minutes. The sugar draws the juice out of the berries and makes its own syrup — the berries get juicier the longer they sit.

Mix the biscuit dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Cut in the cold butter. Add the cold cubed butter to the flour and cut it in with a pastry cutter or two forks until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs with pea-size pieces of butter still visible. Those butter pieces are what make the biscuits flaky — do not work them away.

Add the cream and egg, shape and cut the biscuits. Whisk the cream, egg and vanilla together, then pour into the flour mixture and stir just until a shaggy dough forms. Turn it out onto a floured surface, pat it into a round about 2 cm thick, and cut 8 rounds with a floured 6 cm cutter (or a glass). Gather the scraps once, pat out again and cut the rest — do not re-roll more than once.

Bake the biscuits. Place the rounds on the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 5 cm apart. Brush the tops with a little extra cream and sprinkle with coarse sugar if you like. Bake for 13–15 minutes, until the tops are golden and the biscuits have risen. Let them cool on the sheet for 5 minutes, then move to a wire rack.

Whip the cream. While the biscuits cool, pour the cold whipping cream into a chilled bowl. Add the powdered sugar and vanilla and whip with a hand mixer on medium-high speed until soft peaks form — the cream should hold its shape but still look soft and billowy. Do not overwhip or it turns grainy.

Split the biscuits. When the biscuits are cool enough to handle, split each one in half horizontally with a serrated knife. The bottom half is the base; the top half is the lid. If a biscuit crumbles a little, that is fine — it is going under berries and cream.

Assemble and serve. Spoon a generous amount of macerated strawberries and their syrup over the bottom half of each biscuit. Add a big dollop of whipped cream, then set the top half on at an angle so the filling shows. Spoon a little more berries and cream over the top and serve immediately — shortcake waits for no one.