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.
Laura says
Hi Alison!
First of all, thanks for posting all these fantastic recipes.
About this strawberry cake, would it work the same way if I used raspberries instead?
Thank you very much!
Alison Andrews says
Hi Laura! Yes sure! Raspberries would work the same way. 🙂
Meg says
First of all, you should know that I use your strawberry frosting recipe for my daughter’s birthday EVERY year because it’s her favorite and she gets straight-up offended when I say, “Are you sure you don’t want to try something new this year? I could make another flavor.” So thanks for sharing this awesome recipe! Second, I might have made too big of a batch this year. Do you think I can freeze the frosting and keep it for a couple of weeks?
Alison Andrews says
That is SO sweet and funny. I love it! Thanks so much for the wonderful comment and review. You can definitely freeze the leftover frosting for a couple weeks or months! Let it thaw in the fridge overnight when you want to use it and it may be a good idea to also beat it again briefly in the electric mixer to get it nice and fluffy again before you use it.
Adison Thorp says
Could I substitute applesauce for a portion of the sugar in the cake?
Alison Andrews says
I’m not sure how well that would work as applesauce is usually more a replacement for oil. You could try just reducing the sugar a bit and see how it works out without any substitution.
Karen says
I’m going to try this for my daughter’s birthday next month. She wants pink cake, she’s allergic to eggs, and I don’t really like strawberry jello flavor, so this would be perfect.
Alison Andrews says
Hope it works out great Karen!
Mamma says
Hi! So if I make a strawberry reduction for the batter and I have 1/2c of the reduction, could I replace the other 1/2c with milk? So instead of doing 1 cup of purée, I would do 1/2c reduction and 1/2c milk. Do you think that would work?
Alison Andrews says
Yes I think that would work fine! 🙂
Susan says
Could you make the purée with frozen unsweetened strawberries, or would the texture be too off, do you think?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Susan, I think if you thaw them first and then purée there would be no difference and that would work fine! 🙂
G G says
Hi there! I’ve been wanting to try out this recipe but was wondering if I could swap out the olive oil for coconut oil(melted)?
And can this be made as cupcakes? What changes will I have to make?
Thank you!
Alison Andrews says
Hi there, sure, melted coconut oil would work great! We have done a strawberry cupcakes recipe based on this recipe, so check that one out. 🙂
Rebecca says
mine didn’t rise as much as yours? any idea what I should do differently! beautiful recipe. Thank you.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Rebecca, I’m not sure, sometimes baking soda becomes less effective and it can be good to get a fresh batch, but as long as it did rise and tasted good then I would say it probably worked out well! 🙂
Sue says
Hi there! Can it be made using gluten free flour ? I have celiac disease,
Alison Andrews says
Hi Sue, yes you can try switching the regular flour for a gluten free all purpose baking blend. 🙂
Ashley Ward says
Could we mix and match some of the different flavors you created recipes for? For example I’ve been curious to try an orange cake with strawberry icing (or vice versa). Is that a flavor combination I could combine? Same thing for lemon and strawberry?
Alison Andrews says
Absolutely! Mix and match away. I think any flavor combo that appeals to you would be just great. 🙂
Laana says
Turned out exactly as promised – light, fluffy and moist! It raised very evenly in the oven too and retained it’s beautiful shape after baking (never happened to me before). I used strawberry-lingonberry mousse as cake filling and whipped aplro soy cream as frosting. Delicious! The birthday boy was very happy! Thank you! Greetings from Finland!
Alison Andrews says
So happy to hear it was a success! Thanks so much for sharing and the wonderful review. 🙂
Desirea says
Where did u get strawberry extract? I’m having a hard time locating this.
Alison Andrews says
I got it locally, but you can get it on Amazon as well, McCormick brand have one. 🙂
Jeff says
Can you make this into a bunt cake?
Alison Andrews says
Hi Jeff, I’m sure you can, though you would need to bake it for a longer time.
Anna says
Hi, i was wondering if it can be substituted with either almond flour or coconut flour ? also what else can i use to do the frosting i am trying to make a vegan sugar cane free or artificial sugar free cake? im Making this cake for someone who is gluten free and dairy free or artificial sweetener free.
Alison Andrews says
Hi Anna, if you want to make it gluten free then the best thing would be to use a gluten free all purpose flour blend that is meant to replace all purpose flour in baking. Almond flour or coconut flour will not work. In terms of the frosting maybe just serve with vegan whipped cream? All the best! 🙂
Yoided says
Alison,
Can I use Truvia instead of regular white sugar?
Thanks
Alison Andrews says
Hi there, I don’t think so, but I also haven’t got any experience with this product.