This Vegan Strawberry Cake is the most delicious, fluffy pink layer cake to celebrate any occasion. Plus, it’s filled with the most delicious strawberry buttercream that brings out all the strawberry flavors from the cake.
When the strawberry season is in full swing, who doesn’t want to bake with strawberries? If you’ve made my delicious vegan strawberry cupcakes, you’ll love this cake version. Baking with strawberries, is amazing but it requires adapting recipes as they tend to release water into the dough.
I have made a lot of baking recipes with strawberries, like my Vegan Strawberry Pie, Vegan Strawberry Muffins, or Strawberry Baked Oatmeal and I’ve learned precisely how to tune base recipes to include the fruit.
This lovely two-layer cake is filled with vegan strawberry buttercream and topped with more fresh strawberries.
Why You’ll Love This Cake
This pink vegan cake recipe is perfect for any birthday or holiday season if you are after a decadent cake loved by everyone. I guarantee that nobody will guess it has no eggs, butter, or dairy.
The taste and texture are as good as any classic bakery-style cake, except it’s vegan. Let me show you how you can make a light, fluffy vegan cake with strawberries.
Ingredients and Substitutions
For the strawberry cake batter you will need.
- Ripe Strawberries – The vibrant red strawberries are the best because they deliver way more flavors than the fresh and still firm ones.
- Soy Milk or any dairy-free milk you like, including almond milk, oat milk, hemp milk, or coconut milk. I find soy milk a better fit for vegan cakes because it adds a moist texture to the cake crumb. This is because soy milk has more protein and is also creamier than almond milk.
- Apple Cider Vinegar or lemon juice. This brings the acidic element needed to make the cake batter rise.
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda – To make the crumb fluffy.
- All-Purpose Flour – You can also all-purpose gluten-free flour, but the texture will be a bit more gummy.
- Sugar or unrefined sugar like cane sugar or coconut sugar.
- Melted Coconut Oil or melted vegan butter or avocado oil. I recommend using a low-flavor oil with a pale light color, or it will impact the cake flavor and crumb color. For example, coconut oil adds a coconut flavor, except if you use refined coconut oil that has no flavor. This is an excellent choice in terms of color because it’s transparent and won’t interfere with the natural pink color of this cake. However, avocado oil has a light green color and can turn the crumb brownish. It’s a low-saturated fat choice. It’s, therefore, healthier, but watch out! The color won’t be the same.
- Freeze-Dried Strawberries – For the batter. This gives both color and flavors without adding moisture.
- Vanilla Extract – for flavor.
- Strawberry Extract – this is optional. If your strawberries are ripe and flavorsome, the cake will have a natural strawberry flavor.
How To Make Vegan Strawberry Cake
There are many ways to use ripe strawberries in baking. Some recipes call for reduced strawberry puree, which consists of cooking the strawberries in water and sugar.
But I like easy vegan recipes, so I will share my easier way of adding strawberry flavor to cakes!
Frosting The Cake
To frost the cake, prepare two batches of my vegan vanilla frosting and add the ingredients below to add the lovely strawberry flavors and color:
- Freeze-Dried Strawberry Powder – Place freeze-dried strawberries in a zip-lock bag and crush them into a fine powder.
- Pink Food Coloring
- Natural Strawberry Extract
- Place the first cake layer on a turning table or a cake plate. Add a third of the frosting in the center and, using a spatula or flat tool, spread it all over the cake.
- Then, place the second cake layer over the first, add a third more frosting on top of the cake, and repeat the same action.
- Spread and turn the table as you press the frosting onto the cake to spread it evenly around the top.
- Finally, add the remaining third of the frosting on the sides of the cake, and turn the table as you spread with the spatula to fill the cracks and holes between the layers.
- Now that cake has been decorated with the vegan strawberry buttercream frosting, add a few fresh strawberries on top of the cake.
Serving
You can serve this cake immediately after it has been frosted or keep it for a few hours in the fridge for the frosting to set.
Serve the cake plain, or with vegan sprinkles, coconut whipped cream, Vegan Whipped Cream, or more fresh strawberries.
Allergy Swaps
Below are some allergy swap ideas if needed.
- Gluten-Free – I didn’t try with an all-purpose gluten-free flour blend in this recipe, but I suppose it will work pretty well if your blend is a 1:1 blend containing added xanthan gum. However, remember that gluten-free flour makes a cake’s texture denser, packed, or gummy.
- Nut-Free – Use nut-free, dairy-free milk like hemp, coconut, or oat milk.
- Coconut-Free – Swap the coconut oil for vegan butter or canola oil.
- Sugar-Free – Replace the sugar with the same amount of natural sugar-free crystal sweetener like erythritol. In the frosting, use powdered erythritol.
Frequently Asked Questions
Below are the answers to your most common questions about this vegan pink cake.
More Vegan Cake Recipes
Below are some more vegan cake recipes for you to try:
Vegan Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
Strawberry Milk
- 1 cup Soy Milk - or non-dairy milk of your choice, at room temperature
- 7.5 oz Strawberries - hulled, about 9 large strawberries
- 2 teaspoons Apple Cider Vinegar - or lemon juice or white vinegar
- 2 ½ cups All-Purpose Flour - or white spelt flour
- 1 ½ cups Sugar - or unrefined cane sugar
- 2 teaspoons Baking Powder
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 tablespoon Freeze Dried Strawberry Powder - or 1/4 teaspoon vegan red food coloring
- 3 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
- ½ cup Melted Coconut Oil - or Melted Vegan Butter
- 1 teaspoon Strawberry Extract
Vegan Strawberry Buttercream
- 2 batches Vegan Vanilla Cupcake Frosting
- 2 tablespoons Freeze-Dried Strawberry Powder - optional
- 3-4 drops Natural Pink Food Coloring
- ½ teaspoon Natural Strawberry Extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) and line two 8-inch round pans with parchment paper. Slightly oil the bottom and sides of the pans. Set aside.
- First, prepare the strawberry milk. Hull and weigh the strawberries, then place them in a food processor or blender with soy milk. Blend and pulse them into smooth strawberry milk.
- In a bowl, stir the strawberry milk and apple cider vinegar. Set aside for 5 minutes to curdle the milk.
- In another large mixing bowl, whisk the flour, freeze-dried strawberry powder, sugar, baking powder, and baking soda until evenly combined.
- Stir in the milk mixture, oil, strawberry extract, and vanilla extract.
- Stir with a spoon until just combined or until no more flour lumps can be seen. Don't over-mix, or the cake will be dense.
- Divide the batter evenly into the 2 pans.
- Bake at 350°F (180°C) with one pan on the center rack and one under the center rack of your oven for 20-23 minutes, switching pan levels halfway through baking. Insert a toothpick in the center of the cakes. If it comes out clean, it's ready to come out of the oven.
- Cool immediately on a wire. Wait for 1-2 hours or until it reaches room temperature before frosting with vegan strawberry buttercream frosting.
Strawberry Buttercream frosting
- Prepare two batches of vegan vanilla frosting and stir in the food coloring, strawberry powder, and flavor at the end.
- Place one cake layer on a turning table and add 1/3 of the frosting. Spread it evenly with a flat tool, then add a second cake layer. Top with 1/3 of the frosting batch and spread it again. Finally, use the last 1/3 amount of the frosting to frost the sides of the cake.
Storage
- Store the cake in the fridge in an airtight box for up to 4 days or freeze for up to 3 months in a sealed container, whole or per slice. Thaw in the refrigerator the day before.
Can I make this in a 9×13 baking pan?
I didn’t try this option, so I am not sure how thick the cake will be and how long it will take to bake.