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.
C says
I was unable to find strawberry essence locally, so i used vanilla and it still had a nice taste. I also used gluten free flour. Yum!
Alison Andrews says
So glad it worked out well for you and thanks for sharing. 🙂
Bartica says
I made this as cupcakes and they were great. Actually the cupcakes were lighter then the cake (I made both actually testing), though the cake was still very good and moist and I had no issue devouring it. I had to use frozen strawberries (thawed) and then made puree and also did not have strawberry essence, but it was fine. You got the point it was strawberry cake.
Alison Andrews says
Awesome, thanks so much for sharing Bartica! 🙂
Lori says
Made this for my sons 20th birthday and he loved it. I had to use Duncan Hines frosting ( believe it or not it’s vegan according to PETA) due to the fact that confectioners sugar that they sell is not vegan and didn’t have time to order from Amazon. I added the strawberry purée to that Frosting and it was a success. Thank you for this recipe!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome to hear it was a success! Thanks for sharing! 🙂
Dee says
Hi Alison, I wanted you to know that I made your cake for my granddaughters 3rd Birthday. She wanted a pink cake. It was perfect! Thank you so much. It was just what I was looking for. I used 2 6 x 2 pans for a small cake.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Dee! That’s awesome, I’m so pleased to hear it was perfect! Thanks so much for posting, I can just imagine it must have been gorgeous and tall in two 6 inch pans. 🙂
Amara says
What would you suggest as a replacement for sugar for this cake?
cathleen swinson says
Hi ! I made this cake yesterday as a trial run for my niece’s graduation. I left out the essence since I did not have it and used 2- 8 1/2 inch pans and baked for 20 minutes. They came out perfectly. I did not have enough strawberries so I just made a coconut milk buttercream frosting. The cake was so good they didnt know it was vegan until I told them. I was extremely pleased with the outcome and cannot wait to make it for my niece, Thanks for the great recipe and loo forward to making it next week!
Alison Andrews says
That’s fantastic Cathleen, thanks so much for sharing your adjustments. It’s always the best when people don’t know it’s vegan until you tell them.
Amara says
How did you make your coconut milk buttercream frosting?
Michelle says
Hi Alison,
I have 2 cake pans that aren’t the same size listed in your recipe (one is small , i think 5″ wide and the other about 11″). Do you think I could use either pan and just adjust the baking time until the batter is cooked?
I’d just rather not buy 2 more cake pans and would like to use the ones I already have.
Hope to hear back soon!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Michelle, that’s really tricky, you could try the 11 inch pan for a single layer cake, and bake it a few minutes longer, but I don’t really know how the results would be, it would be a try it and see situation! Since you only have one 5 inch pan I think that option is definitely out. Let us know how it goes! 🙂
Adriana says
Is the cake batter supposed to be like dough? Almost like a pizza dough. And is it supposed to bake like a bread? I didn’t seem to have enough batter to fill the two baking pans. Help!
Alison Andrews says
The batter is supposed to be thick but definitely not like pizza dough. Did you weigh your flour by any chance or could you have used too much? What size are your baking pans?
Ruth says
Wanting to try this, do you think replacing lemon juice for the strawberry extract might be ok to make it a lemon strawberry cake?
Alison Andrews says
Sure! 🙂
Sarah Jarvis says
My DF EF son has asked for a strawberry cake for his birthday, but they are no longer in season here! Could I purée frozen strawberries instead?
Alison Andrews says
I don’t see why not! Let them thaw and then purée them as usual. 🙂
Ashley says
This would have been so perfect for Valentine’s Day! Such a pretty cake, looks delicious.
Alison Andrews says
Yes, great for Valentines (there’s always next year!) or any romantic occasion really! 🙂
Renee says
The cake was great! It tasted just like regular cake. Def a hit with my family!
Alison Andrews says
Awesome Renee! So happy to hear! 🙂
Andrea says
I made this over the weekend for a friend’s birthday and it was fun and had a delicious strawberry-flavor. Some tweaks were necessary though….The frosting recipe calls for using 4 cups of powdered sugar. That seemed like a whole lot, so I cut it down to 2 cups and it was still well over what was needed for this cake! Maybe the conversations from grams to ounces was off? (I’ll use the rest for another go at it!). Lastly, I personally do not think an entire cup of sugar is needed for the cake since the frosting is very, very sweet. I used 3/4 and maybe would use even less next time. Thanks again for the fun recipe.
Alison Andrews says
Hey Andrea, I do use a lot of frosting on my cakes you can see from the pics, it is quite thick! So it definitely is 4 cups used. As far as the sugar in the cake, that’s personal preference, I consider the sweetness of the cake to be absolutely perfect.
Ashleigh says
Thank you for making a recipe all from scratch! I’m looking forward to making this.
Alison Andrews says
You’re welcome! Let us know how it turns out! 🙂
Anna Andrews says
A light fluffy pink delight!