Take 12,000 pounds of strawberries.

Add 19,000 sweet “biscuits.”

And serve up a mountain of whipped topping and ice cream.

For the Christ Church Cathedral Women, that’s the recipe for one of the most successful church fundraisers in Indianapolis: the annual Strawberry Festival on Monument Circle. Last year, it raked in $80,000 that benefited a diverse group of charities.

But a key question going into the 44th annual festival Thursday is whether the lingering recession will diminish demand for $6 bowls of strawberry shortcake.

Festival chairwoman Karen Farmer, who’s been serving up shortcakes on the Circle for 35 years, isn’t sure what to expect. Somehow, she seems confident that Downtown office workers won’t be able to resist the gravitational pull of the shortcake.

“It’s just one of those things that gets momentum when people look out their windows and see people going for dessert,” she said.

The Cathedral Women have held the line on prices for three consecutive years despite rising costs, Farmer said. And if the $6 works doesn’t fit the budget, there’s always the $2 bowls of the individual ingredients (strawberries, shortcake or a topping). Charities receive about 95 percent of the proceeds.