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
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 10
- Diet: Vegan
Description
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 Granulated Sugar
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 cup (232g) Strawberry Purée*
- 2 tsp Strawberry Extract
- 1/3 cup (80ml) Canola Oil (or Vegetable Oil)
- 1 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
- 1 Flax Egg (1 Tbsp Ground Flaxseed Meal + 3 Tbsp Hot Water)
- 1 Tbsp Pink or Red Food Coloring (Optional)
For the Strawberry Frosting:
- 4 cups (480g) Powdered 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, 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
I want to make this for valentines day with two nine inch pans, how would I change the measurements?
Hi Priya, you would likely need to increase the recipe by half, or double it (for two fat 9-inch layers). The recipe as is will make a single layer 9-inch cake.
I was asked to bake my very first vegan cake, and they wanted strawberry. As I looked through different recipes this one stood out to me the most and I’m so happy I chose it. They LOVED it!! My question is the concerning the additional 3 tablespoons of flour… I didn’t include it either time I have baked it and the cake came out amazingly to us all. What’s the purpose for the additional flour?? Thanks so much for such an awesome recipe!
★★★★★
So glad you enjoyed it. Did you weigh the flour or use cups to measure it? It’s possible you ended up using the same amount as we did anyway! So glad it worked out great.
Hi, Can white sugar be replaced with powdered sugar? What I have is white sugar with big grains, is that ok? Will they melt alright?
Granulated sugar is the right kind of sugar for the cake, but it won’t work well for the frosting. You need the very fine powdered sugar for the frosting, but the sugar you have is just fine for the cake, hope that helps!
I love the cake, but the frosting is very sweet. Any tips for adding lemon juice or something to cut the sweetness?
★★★★
The first time I made this cake I was making this cake gluten-free and followed the recipe exactly, but the cake batter was like dough and baking didn’t save it. This time I had to make alterations cause the Red Mills 1 to 1 GF flour was too heavy and the cake wasn’t rising. I added 2 1/2 tsp of baking soda, instead of 2 tsp, and 3/4 cup of unsweetened almond milk and it came out perfect.
★★★★
This looks absolutely delicious!! I was wondering if I could make this cake without the strawberry extract, would it still have a strong strawberry flavor? I can’t find strawberry extract in any stores near me, and if I order it online it won’t come in time for when I need it. Is there anything I could use as a substitute, like freeze dried strawberries?
You can absolutely leave it out. It will still have plenty of flavor from the strawberry purée. 🙂
Amazingly vegan..Looks delicious
★★★★★
Thanks Neela!