This vegan strawberry cake is a dream! Topped with strawberry buttercream frosting and decorated with fresh strawberries it’s a strawberry lovers dream come true!
The strawberry flavor comes through perfectly and comes from strawberry purée and a little strawberry essence.
This cake is also a reader request, so please continue to request things, we want to make all the things that you want to see!
The strawberry purée and strawberry essence give the batter a lovely light pink color, however I found that it didn’t hold when baking.
So I added in a tablespoon of pink food coloring. You can omit this if you don’t mind about the color, but as you can see the result was a nice shade of pink that (mostly) held through the baking process.
The strawberry frosting is also flavored with strawberry purée and a little strawberry extract.
By the way it might be called strawberry essence where you are, or it might be called strawberry flavoring, it’s the same thing and will do the job perfectly.
And then of course you’re going to decorate with fresh strawberries, it’s a strawberry cake after all!
But just beware that strawberries can run a little, so put them on right before serving.
So if you love strawberries, then you are going to simply LOVE this vegan strawberry cake, it is:
- Moist
- Fluffy
- Packed with strawberry flavor
- Pink
- Pretty!
- Topped with strawberry buttercream frosting!
Keep it covered at room temperature where it will stay fresh for a few days or covered in the fridge where it will stay good for up to a week.
What do you think of this vegan strawberry cake? Let us know in the comments! And please rate the recipe if you make it as this is so helpful!
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Vegan Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Frosting
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 10
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Light, fluffy and deliciously moist vegan strawberry cake with strawberry frosting. This pretty pink cake is packed with strawberry flavor and ideal for any kind of celebration!
Ingredients
For the Strawberry Cake:
- 2 cups (250g) + 3 Tbsp All Purpose Flour
- 1 cup (200g) White Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 cup (232g) Strawberry Purée*
- 2 tsp Strawberry Extract
- 1/3 cup (80ml) Extra Virgin Olive Oil (or other vegetable oil)
- 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Flax Egg
- 1 Tbsp Pink or Red Food Coloring (Optional)
For the Strawberry Frosting:
- 4 cups (480g) Powdered (Confectioners) Sugar
- 1/4 cup (56g) Vegan Butter
- 1/4 cup (60ml) Strawberry Purée*
- 1 tsp Strawberry Extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
- Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the sugar, baking soda and salt.
- Prepare your flax egg by mixing 1 Tbsp of ground flaxseed meal with 3 Tbsp of Hot Water from the kettle. Allow to sit for a minute to become gloopy.
- Add the strawberry purée, strawberry extract, olive oil, vinegar, flax egg and food coloring and mix in. The batter will be very thick, too thick to whisk, so just use a spoon and mix as well as you can, being careful not to over-mix.
- Spray two 7-inch cake tins with non-stick spray, and place a circle of parchment paper at the base of each. Divide the batter evenly between them and place into the oven to bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Transfer to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before frosting.
- Prepare your frosting by adding the powdered sugar, vegan butter, strawberry purée and strawberry extract into the bowl of an electric mixer. Starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed until thick and smooth. The frosting should be very thick, but still spreadable. Add more powdered sugar if it’s too thin and a little more strawberry purée if it ends up too thick.
- Frost the cakes when cooled and serve with fresh strawberries.
Notes
*Make your own strawberry purée by placing fresh strawberries (washed, with stems cut off) into the food processor and processing into a purée. In order to get enough purée for both the cake recipe and the frosting I used a whole 14oz (400g) pack of fresh whole strawberries. There was a bit left over from puréeing this amount, so you can also use a bit less, or you can just eat the bit that’s left over.
*Weigh your flour for the most accurate results as flour measures are the most tricky in baking.
- Category: Dessert, Cakes
- Method: Bake
- Cuisine: Vegan
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Slice (of 10)
- Calories: 435
- Sugar: 69g
- Sodium: 282mg
- Fat: 10.3g
- Saturated Fat: 1.5g
- Carbohydrates: 85g
- Fiber: 1.5g
- Protein: 2.2g
Keywords: vegan strawberry cake
This was so good!!! Made for my daughter’s birthday and it was a hit!
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks for the wonderful rating. 🙂
Could the flour be substituted for almond flour since it is a 1:1 ratio usually? I’m trying to find a vegan and gluten free recipe as a surprise for someone. Thanks in advance 🙂
Hi Angie, I don’t think almond flour alone will work, you can try it with a gluten-free all purpose flour blend that is designed as a replacement for regular flour in baking.
Hi! Have you made just the cake portion in advanced and frozen it until you needed it? I was hoping to make it in advance while I have time and then frost it about 5 days later. Will it still be fluffy and light after it defrosts?
Hi Christine, you can freeze the cake and it should maintain all its fluffiness! All the best! 🙂
I used a chia egg instead and didn’t add the strawberry flavor (in Germany, couldn’t find it). It turned out so lovely! It reminds me of the cake that my grandma used to make me for my birthday. Thank you for the wonderful recipe!
★★★★★
Wonderful! Thanks so much for sharing and the awesome review. xo
the cake is delicious but wasn’t enough batter for two round cake pans – made for a very thin cake.
Hi Carrie, did you use 7-inch cake pans? That is the size I used, if you used a bigger size that would account for the layers being very thin.
I’m trying to stay away from food dyes. Any suggestions on what I can use to get the pink without the dye?
You can leave it out, the strawberry purée gives it all the flavor, but I haven’t found a way to dye cakes without the artificial stuff, the color just bakes off.
There is natural food dye although can be expensive.
Hi! All I have is an 8” round. I was thinking of making a couple cupcakes to reduce the batter. Thoughts?
Hi Laura, I’m thinking 4 cupcakes would be great and just bake the single 8-inch for 30 minutes as usual, but take out the cupcakes after 25 minutes. Hope I got my maths right there, but that seems right to me! All the best! 🙂
Hi there Just made this cake and it came out beautiful. I used tinned strawberries and as they are sweetened i found the cake to sweet. So next time i will reduce the sugar.How can i make icing that is not so sweet. I have been cutting down on sugar and find that everything taste to sweet now.
★★★★
Hi Geraldine, yes sweetened strawberries would make this cake a bit too sweet. If you reduce the sugar to compensate next time or use fresh strawberries that will sort out that issue. You could always serve this with some whipped coconut cream and forego the frosting altogether, that would also be delicious! Thanks so much for your review! 🙂
Does this work if you bake it in one larger pan as opposed to two smaller pans? Do you know how it affects the baking time? Thanks for your help. I’m making this for my birthday. Strawberry is my favourite!
Hi SJ, this would make a single layer 9-inch round cake and you would likely need to bake it an extra 10 minutes or so, depending on your oven. If you are wanting to make it into a sheet cake, that actually reduces the baking time, so it does depend on what kind of dish you’re wanting to use. All the best! 🙂
Hey Alison, thanks for the amazing recipe. The cake looks both beautiful for its color (my fav XD) and really delicious for its rich strawberry flavor. I’ll surely be baking this cake for my 18th birthday party along with your recipes of ‘Vegan Pumpkin Cake’ and ‘Vegan Carrot Cake’ as this b’day I want to prepare my dishes grown from fruits and veggies from my own garden and want to share my experiences about gardening and want my other folks to do gardening too as a healthy alternative to artificial and synthetic foodstuffs!!!
★★★★★
Hi Akash, thanks so much! Hope you’ll find lots of recipes that you enjoy on the blog. Thanks for posting! 🙂
Came out great !! Thanks !!
Hello
Have you ever used coconut oil in place of vegan butter or another acceptable alternative? I have yet to find a butter my daughter can have (gluten free, soy free, sunflower free, dairy free, and doesn’t have any traces of tree nuts) i am still experimenting but would love any advice if you have a ratio substitution for butter. Its tricky. The taste is ok but consistency is just weird with coconut oil when i use 1:1.
Thanks!
Hi Brittany, the problem I have found with coconut oil as a substitution is it is too runny at room temperature and too firm in the fridge. We have a homemade vegan butter recipe that can be used, but since the base of it is coconut oil as well, it has the same issue. It can work in a pinch though.
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly! Sadly my daughter cant have a few of those ingredients in the homemade version either. Its exhausting! But I appreciate the quick response nonetheless.
Have you tried making a coconut whip? That is what I was thinking for this frosting as I am not fond of the oils in the vegan butter.
Take a can of coconut milk and put upside down in fridge overnight.
Next day open it upside down and scoop out flesh. Put in mixer and whip up.
I have yet to try adding the puree but I am sure there is a recipe out there or you can experiment.
Hi Alison,
I love the way your cake looks! Want to definitely give it a try as my son loves strawberries, but can I replace flax egg with normal egg? If yes, what would be the ratio? My son is allergic to a bunch of stuff but can take baked egg, so I want to incorporate egg in baked goods as much as I can. Really appreciate your effort in making vegan stuff! I was so relieved to see a beautiful cake with no trace of dairy in it!!
Thanks
Prasuna
★★★★★
Hi there, the ratio would be 1 flax egg = 1 regular egg. All the best and hope you enjoy the recipe! 🙂
Is the ACV necessary if using an egg? I’m only dairy free not vegan but this is the only strawberry cake I could find without using a boxes mix. Can’t wait to try it
Hi Emily, I think it would still be necessary as the reaction of baking soda with vinegar helps the cake rise. So a regular egg could replace the flax egg but wouldn’t change anything else I don’t think. All the best! 🙂