This pretty pink vegan strawberry cake is light and fluffy and topped with a gorgeous vegan strawberry buttercream frosting.
This vegan strawberry cake is a dream. Topped with a delicious strawberry buttercream frosting it’s a strawberry lovers dream come true!
It’s made with fresh strawberry purée which is just fresh strawberries puréed in the food processor. So it’s loaded with strawberry flavor.
It’s also light, fluffy and wonderfully moist.
If you love delicious vegan cakes then you’ll also love our gorgeous vegan Victoria sponge our vegan banana cake and our most amazing vegan chocolate cake too.
Ingredients You Need For The Cake:
Ingredient Notes
- Canola oil – can be replaced with vegetable oil or any neutral flavored oil. We have even made this cake with a light olive oil and it worked great.
- Distilled white vinegar – reacts with the baking soda and causes the cake to rise. You can also use apple cider vinegar.
- Fresh strawberries – are puréed in the food processor to make strawberry purée.
- Strawberry extract – may also be called strawberry essence or strawberry flavoring, it’s the same thing and will do the job perfectly. If you can’t get hold of it, then you can replace it with vanilla extract. The strawberry purée will still provide plenty of strawberry flavor.
- Red gel food color – The strawberry purée and strawberry extract on their own give the batter a lovely light pink color, but we found that it didn’t hold when baking. So we needed to add in a little red gel food coloring to get the beautiful pink color. You can omit this if you don’t mind about the color, but as you can see the result of using the red gel food color is a nice shade of pink that holds up well through the baking process.
The Frosting
Frosting Notes
- Strawberry extract – as with the cake, if you can’t get hold of strawberry extract then simply replace it with vanilla extract.
- Strawberry purée – make a little extra purée from fresh strawberries than you need for the cake batter so that you have some left over to use in the frosting.
- Vegan butter – you can use any brand of vegan butter but a firmer option will always work best in a frosting.
How To Make Vegan Strawberry Cake
You will find full instructions and measurements in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. This is a summary of the process to go along with the process photos.
- Prepare your strawberry purée by adding fresh strawberries (washed, stems cut off) to your food processor and puréeing until smooth. In order to get enough purée for both the cake recipe and the frosting use 10.5 ounces (300g) fresh whole strawberries.
- Sift all purpose flour into a mixing bowl and add white granulated sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix together.
- Add strawberry purée, oil, vinegar, strawberry extract and red gel food coloring to the mixing bowl and mix into a batter.
- Divide the batter evenly between three 6-inch cake pans (sprayed with non-stick spray and lined with circles of parchment paper on the bottom).
- Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool for a few minutes before removing them from the cake pans and placing them on a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Add powdered sugar, vegan butter, strawberry purée and strawberry extract to the bowl of your stand mixer and starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed until your frosting is thick and smooth. If it’s too thick, add more strawberry purée.
- When the cakes are cooled, frost with the strawberry buttercream frosting.
- When the cake is frosted, it’s ideal to let the frosted cake set up in the fridge for one hour before serving.
Recipe Tips
Measure the flour correctly. Either use the spoon and level method: spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife, don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup, or weigh it out on a food scale for complete accuracy.
Don’t over-mix the batter. Mix the batter until it’s just mixed and then stop mixing. If you over-mix the batter it will affect the texture and rise.
Bake the cakes immediately. When the cake batter is ready, transfer to your cake pans and bake them right away. Don’t let the cakes sit for any length of time before baking or it may affect the texture and rise.
Adapt for different cake pans. This cake adapts to different size cake pans as follows:
- Three 6-inch round cake pans – bake for 20 minutes.
- Two 7-inch round cake pans – bake for 25 minutes.
- Two 8-inch round cake pans – bake for 20 minutes (note that the cake layers are quite thin).
- One 9-inch round cake pan – bake for 30 minutes.
- One 9×9 square cake pan – bake for 25 minutes.
Recipe FAQ
If you’d like to make this cake gluten-free then use a gluten-free all purpose flour blend in the same quantity as the regular flour.
If you want to make cupcakes then check out our recipe for vegan strawberry cupcakes, the recipe is adapted from this cake.
Keep the cake covered at room temperature where it will stay fresh for 2-3 days or covered in the fridge where it will stay good for up to a week.
Yes, this cake is freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
More Vegan Cakes
- Vegan Vanilla Cake
- Vegan Red Velvet Cake
- Vegan Carrot Cake
- Easy Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Lemon Cake
- The Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
Did you make this recipe? Be sure to leave a comment and rating below!
Vegan Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
Strawberry Cake:
- 2 cups All Purpose Flour (250g)
- 1 cup White Granulated Sugar (200g)
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- ½ tsp Salt
- 1 cup Strawberry Purée (232g)
- ½ cup Canola Oil (120ml) or Vegetable Oil
- 1 Tbsp Distilled White Vinegar or Apple Cider Vinegar
- 2 tsp Strawberry Extract
- ⅛ tsp Red Gel Food Color
Strawberry Buttercream Frosting:
- 4 cups Powdered Sugar (480g)
- ½ cup Vegan Butter (112g)
- 2-3 Tbsp Strawberry Purée
- 1 tsp Strawberry Extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray three 6-inch cake pans with non-stick spray and line the bottoms with circles of parchment paper. Set aside.
- Prepare your strawberry purée by adding fresh strawberries (washed, stems cut off) to your food processor and puréeing until smooth. In order to get enough purée for both the cake recipe and the frosting use 10.5 ounces (300g) fresh whole strawberries.
- Sift the all purpose flour into a mixing bowl and add white granulated sugar, baking soda and salt. Mix together.
- Add strawberry purée, oil, vinegar, strawberry extract and red gel food coloring to the mixing bowl and mix into a batter. Don’t overmix.
- Divide the batter evenly between the three prepared 6-inch cake pans and smooth down.
- Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of one of the cakes comes out clean.
- Let the cakes cool for a few minutes before removing them from the cake pans and placing them on a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
- Add the powdered sugar, vegan butter, 2 tablespoons of strawberry purée and strawberry extract to the bowl of your stand mixer and starting at slow speed, gradually increase speed until your frosting is thick and smooth. If it’s too thick, add more strawberry purée.
- When the cakes are cooled, frost with the strawberry buttercream frosting.
- When the cake is frosted, it’s ideal to let the frosted cake set in the fridge for one hour before serving.
Notes
- Measure the flour correctly. Either use the spoon and level method: spoon the flour into your measuring cup and then level off the top with a knife, don’t scoop it and don’t pack it into the cup, or weigh it out on a food scale for complete accuracy.
- Strawberry extract – may also be called strawberry essence or strawberry flavoring, it’s the same thing and will do the job perfectly. If you can’t get hold of it, then you can replace it with vanilla extract. The strawberry purée will still provide plenty of strawberry flavor.
- Red gel food color – The strawberry purée and strawberry extract on their own give the batter a lovely light pink color, but we found that it didn’t hold when baking. So we added in a little red gel food coloring to get the beautiful pink color. You can omit this if you don’t mind about the color, but as you can see the result of using the red gel food color is a nice shade of pink that holds up well through the baking process.Don’t over-mix the batter. Mix the batter until it’s just mixed and then stop mixing. If you over-mix the batter it will affect the texture and rise.
- Adapt for different cake pans. This cake adapts to different size cake pans as follows:
- Three 6-inch round cake pans – bake for 20 minutes.
- Two 7-inch round cake pans – bake for 25 minutes.
- Two 8-inch round cake pans – bake for 20 minutes (note that the cake layers are quite thin).
- One 9-inch round cake pan – bake for 30 minutes.
- One 9×9 square cake pan – bake for 25 minutes.
- Make It Gluten-Free: If you’d like to make this cake gluten-free then use a gluten-free all purpose flour blend in the same quantity as the regular flour.
- Storing and Freezing: Keep the cake covered at room temperature where it will stay fresh for 2-3 days or covered in the fridge where it will stay good for up to a week. It’s also is freezer friendly for up to 3 months.
- This recipe was first published in January 2018. It has been updated with new photos and the recipe itself has been slightly updated and simplified.
Hi Alison,
A friend of mine wants me to bake a vegan cake and I like the strawberry cake. I want to make a three layer or four layer cake with 8 inch pans. From your recipe could you please give me the exact measurement ingredients so I won’t mess it up please?
Also where can I get the dried freeze strawberry from? I need it before Saturday
Thank you
Hi Alice. If you want to make a 4 tier cake using 8 inch pans you would need to double the recipe. So each ingredient will be multiplied by two. You can buy freeze dried strawberries at any grocery store. All the best!
Thanks for the recipe Alison. It turned out great. just a quick note: the recipe ends up being about 820 grams of batter, so I had to half it and make it again to get 400 grams of batter in each 6″ pan. I baked it for 30 min and it was the perfect size for my customer.
Thanks for sharing and for your review Maggie!
Wow, this was amazing! No one could believe it was vegan. I doubled the recipe to make a triple layered 8″ cake and used 2 cups of pureed fresh local strawberries. Other than cutting the sugar by a quarter, I followed the cake recipe to a T, and it was perfect. I did combine ideas for the frosting and used freeze dried strawberries instead of fresh, and it worked out really well.
Thank you so much for your incredible work 🙂
That’s great Sabrina! Thanks so much for sharing and for your wonderful review!
I have been doing this cake for the past 3 years for everyone’s birthday at home, it’s perfect every single time. Thank you for this beautiful recipe!!!
So happy to hear you enjoy the recipe Veni! Thank you so much for your wonderful review!
This by far is the best cake recipe I have found! I use it as a base and have swapped the strawberries for apples and it is perfect. Gonna try swapping with pumpkin for fall..
Amazing Jennifer! So happy to hear you enjoy the recipe! We actually also have a delicious vegan pumpkin cake recipe, perfect for fall!
This recipe is amazing! Huge hit and you’d never know it was vegan!! Do I need to adjust anything to make this into cupcakes?
Hi Cynthia! If you want to make cupcakes then check out our recipe for vegan strawberry cupcakes, the recipe is adapted from this cake.
Do you strain the strawberries after they are puréed?
No, There is no need to strain the strawberries after they are puréed.
Mine didn’t rise much at all, anyone know why? 😢
Hi Angela. There can be a lot that may go wrong i.e baking temp of your oven or the rising agent. The only rising agent used in the recipe is the baking soda. If baking soda gets too old, it can loose its leavening powers.
FINALLY!! I have tried a handful of strawberry cake recipes and wasn’t a fan of any! This was perfect!! I think what made it was no extra liquid besides the oil/strawberry puree. I only got 2 layers out of it though–but maybe i like thicker layers. Either way! SO good!!! Thanks!
That’s fantastic! Thanks for the great review Amanda!
This is one of the best vegan strawberry recipes out there. I love the delicate crumb and how the strawberry flavor really comes through. No one would suspect that this is vegan. I can’t wait to try the gluten free version of this!
So glad you enjoy the recipe Clarissa! Thank you so much for your amazing review!
This cake is delicious and the recipe worked perfectly. I have a kitchen scale and weighed all of the ingredients. We’re not vegan, but a member of the family has an egg allergy, so I am always looking for delicious cake recipes that don’t have eggs. This one is for sure a winner! We did frost it with regular buttercream, substituting vegan butter for real butter.
That said, I’ve noticed that a lot of vegan butter uses nuts; any vegan butter you’d recommend that’s nut free?