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.
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!
Loved the way this cake turned out! I did mess up the measurements for frosting (adding 1 1/2 cup less sugar than the recipe called for with the hopes that it doesn’t turn too sugary) so the frosting turned runny. I then added cornstarch to fix that, but I am happy with the sugar-level that turned out. In my family of 3 we can’t handle too much sugar :). I didn’t have unsalted vegan butter so ended up using Earth balance organic vegan salted one and it sort of balanced the sugar level I think. We still loved the cake and we ate it all up in a day. About to make my next one now! 🙂
Big thanks!
So glad you enjoyed the cake! Thanks for reviewing!
Hello do you happen to know how many cups of cake batter this recipe makes? I need six cups total for a project I’m working on
Hi Pamela, I have never measured it this way so I don’t know.
Is it possible to sub GF all purpose flour instead of regular?
Yes that should work fine.
Hi! I’m planning on making this cake tomorrow, but I don’t have any strawberry extract, any ideas on how to fix that? Thank you!
You can leave it off, the flavor will be reduced, but will still be there from the strawberry purée.
Hi,
Can I substitute the apple cider vinegar with something else, such as lemon juice etc? If yes, how much should I replace it with? Thks!
You can try lemon juice in the same quantity.
Will this work with frozen strawberries? Thank you!
Yes I think it would.
Hi Allison! I made this today for father’s day and it was a huge hit! Thank you so much for your recipes
Wonderful! Thanks Alice!
The cake is great! Love the taste, and it baked really well at 22 min in 9” pans. The sweetness of the icing overpowers it though— I thought something was odd about 4 cups of powdered sugar for a small cake. Are all the measurements definitely correct for the icing?
Thanks!
All measures are correct. You are welcome to adjust the frosting to your taste though.
Hello! I am planning to make this cake 1 day in advance and frost just before serving, would you recommend to leave the baked cake out in room temperature, freeze it or just chill in the non-freezer section? Also, I am planning to frost it with your Vanilla Frosting recipe! So if I were to prepare the frosting in advance as well, do I chill or freeze it? Any ideas if I need to use the electric mixer again after thawing? Thank you in advance!!
Hi Carina, is there a particular reason you don’t want to frost it? Because you could frost the cake and then cover it and refrigerate overnight and it will be perfect. Even if you don’t frost it, then cover both frosting and cake separately and refrigerate. As long as the cake is covered it won’t dry out. And then frost on the day. I wouldn’t freeze it as that is not needed for 1 day in advance.
As I’m not sure if the frosted cake will look different the next day haha! Thanks for your quick response, I just baked my cake and will frost like you said later! Do you think piping decorations will hold up until the next day?
It should do, if it’s frosted and then piped and stored in the fridge (covered) it should hold up great.
Is there a way I can substitute maple syrup (or other natural sweetener) for the sugar? I have a 9 month old who has to eat cake for a baked egg challenge (to determine if his egg allergy extends to baked goods) when he is a year old. I have to “train” him with an egg free cake (and he LOVES strawberries) that I can later add an egg in at the allergists office. He has had very limited sugar and eats strawberries like candy, so I think he would LOVE this cake.
Hi Julie, maple syrup won’t work well as a sub and neither would any liquid sweetener. You can reduce the sugar a little without any other changes to the recipe and see how you go with that.
Can the oil be replaced with applesauce? Or do you have a better suggestion if I’m trying to avoid all oil for health reasons? Would it be the same amount?
You can try replacing the oil with applesauce, it would be in the same quantity.
Is there anything else I can use besides strawberry extract? My Publix says they don’t carry it…any suggestions??
You can leave it out, you will still have great strawberry flavor from the purée. 🙂
Currently researching strawberry cakes because my dad won’t stop asking me to make one, and I’m wondering if I can use half the sugar and the other maple syrup. Do you recommend trying this or would it mess the whole thing up?
Hi Jazmin, I don’t recommend using maple syrup as it may affect the outcome. You can try just reducing the sugar though, without other changes. Al the best! 🙂