Vegan Strawberry Cake
Soft and fluffy vegan strawberry cake packed with 4 cups of fresh strawberries (no extract needed)! This cake is easy to prepare and keeps well for days.
This cake is the perfect Valentine’s Day dessert just like my vegan strawberry cupcakes! It has been adapted from my very tried and tested vegan mango cake.
Simple ingredients you’ll need
The full list of ingredient quantities and instructions are in the recipe card at the bottom of this post.
Ingredient notes
Strawberries, either fresh or frozen. I’ve tested this recipe with both and they both work wonderfully. I recommend using strawberries that are sweet and vibrant as they are the main flavor of your cake. Strawberry puree acts as a wonderful egg replacer, so we don’t need any special egg replacers in this cake!
Dairy-free milk. This recipe uses less milk than other vegan cakes because we have so much moisture from the strawberry puree. That means we don’t have to fuss around making a strawberry reduction.
Oil keeps the cake soft, moist and fluffy. This is compared to butter which can make a cake feel dry over time.
Baking powder and soda. We’re using double baking agents to counteract the high amount of fruit, which tends to weigh down a cake!
Pink/red food coloring or beetroot powder (optional). Food coloring provides the most consistent and reliable results as the color is more likely to ‘stick’ during baking. Beetroot powder varies a lot, depending on the brand and age. The color of beetroot powder doesn’t always ‘stick’ during baking and your cake will turn orange/brown. Without any added color, the cake is a dull and pale pink.
Making the strawberry puree
If you’re using frozen strawberries, allow them to fully defrost.
Then add all the strawberries to a food processor or blender and blend until it forms a puree and there aren’t any more chunks
Preparing the strawberry cake batter
First, I’d recommend making the cake batter in a large bowl rather than using a stand mixer. This reduces the chance of over-mixing the batter!
In a large mixing bowl, add all your dry ingredients and mix until combined. If you’re using beetroot powder, mix it in as well.
Then add all your wet ingredients (including food coloring, if using) to the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Some lumps in the batter are fine, as long as they aren’t lumps of dry flour.
The final mixture should be quite thick. This helps create a fluffier vegan strawberry cake without dense spots! A runnier batter results in a stodgy cake.
Baking the cake
This vegan strawberry cake bakes in around 30 minutes, depending on how hot/cool your oven runs.
The cake layers are ready when you insert a skewer in the middle and it completely comes out clean. The cakes are very moist so we need to make sure they are completely baked through!
If you used beetroot powder, the cakes may darken after baking – this is normal! The surface of the cake is normally darker so don’t stress. The middle of the cake is lighter in color!
Decoration tips
I frosted this vegan strawberry cake with vegan strawberry buttercream, but you can also use:
- Vegan strawberry cream cheese frosting or vanilla cream cheese frosting
- Whipped dairy-free cream only if you’re making one layer of the cake. Whipped cream will not hold between layers of cake.
- Drips of chocolate ganache
And you can top the cake with:
- Fresh or freeze-dried strawberries, or any fruit!
- Strawberry jam
- Chocolate shavings or shards
- Vegan strawberry cookies
You can even make this strawberry cake into a heart-shaped cake!
Customizing the cake recipe
I recommend checking out my vegan gluten-free strawberry cake which uses only 6 ingredients! It’s easy to make and stays moist for days.
I tried baking the below recipe with 1:1 gluten-free all-purpose flour and a combination of different gluten-free flours. However, I had to completely change the ingredient quantities to make it work. Even still, the gluten-free cake was often too dry or dense or could only be eaten on the day it was baked.
Coconut sugar is darker than granulated sugar so will turn the cake brown! It also has more moisture than regular sugar so I recommend using a scale to weigh the ingredients so your cake doesn’t have too much moisture.
I don’t recommend beetroot juice. The amount of juice/liquid you’ll need to add to color the cake is enough to completely change the cake’s texture (it’ll be dense and might not bake through).
Whilst pink pitaya powder is a lovely color, I haven’t had great success baking with it. For me, the color completely faded and it gave the cake a slightly rancid taste and smell.
More vegan strawberry desserts
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Vegan Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
Strawberry Puree
- ~4 cups (480g) fresh or frozen strawberries, weighed without stems
Dry cake ingredients
- 3 cups (375g) all-purpose plain flour, (note 1 for gluten free)
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- Pinch of salt
Wet cake ingredients
- ⅓ cup (85g) dairy-free milk
- ½ cup (125g) neutral flavored oil
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar, or lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon liquid pink food color, or 1-2 tablespoons of beetroot powder (add powder with dry ingredients, note 2)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, optional
To decorate (or as desired, note 2 for suggestions)
- 1 – 1 ½ batches Vegan Strawberry Frosting, OR
- 1 batch Vegan Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1 cup (120g) fresh strawberries, or other fresh berries
Instructions
- Note: For the best results, I recommend using grams to measure the ingredients, especially the flour and strawberries. Alternatively, use the spoon and level method to measure the flour. Use a spoon to add flour to a measuring cup and level it off with a knife. Do not use the measuring cup to scoop flour out of your container as too much flour will result in a dense cake.
Prepare the fresh strawberry puree:
- Add the strawberries to a food processor or blender. Blend until there are no more chunks. Set aside.
Make the strawberry cake:
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease or line 2 x 8 inch (20 cm) round cake pans with parchment paper.
- Add all the dry cake ingredients to a large mixing bowl and mix until there are no lumps. Add the strawberry puree and wet cake ingredients to the bowl and fold until just combined. Be careful to not overmix the batter. Lumps in the cake batter are fine, as long as there aren't pockets of flour.
- Divide and pour the cake batter between your 2 cake pans.
- Bake the cakes for around 25-30 minutes. They're ready when you can insert a toothpick in the middle and it comes out clean. Let the cakes cool in their pans for around 10 minutes then remove them to cool on a wire rack.
To assemble the cake:
- When the cakes have completely cooled, slice off the dome of one cake. Place that cake on a serving plate.
- If you chilled your frosting, stir it a few times to make sure it’s smooth and soft. Spread or pipe around 1 cup of frosting on the cake and place the remaining cake on top.
- Spread or pipe the remaining frosting on top. Garnish with fresh strawberries or as desired.
- Store the cake in an airtight container in the fridge until serving. Allow the cake to come to room temperature 30 minutes – 1 hour before serving. Leftovers will keep in the fridge for 5 days or in the freezer (without fresh strawberries) for 1 month.
Video
Notes
- I haven’t had much success substituting the all-purpose flour with 1:1 gluten free flour blends or a combination of gluten free flours without completely changing the recipe. Instead, I’d recommend my 6 ingredient gluten free strawberry cake which is super easy to make!
- For the most consistent and reliable results, I recommend pink/red food coloring. The color of food dye is more likely to be maintained during baking (it does turn a little darker). Beetroot powder can work but is a little unreliable depending on the age and brand of the powder. Sometimes if you add beetroot powder to a cake batter, the batter will be a lovely pink but the baked cake can be anywhere from pink to orange/brown.
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as a side note for a potential gluten free way…
I didn’t have quite enough plain flour, I ended up using 50/50 plain flour, and cornflour. (maybe called cornstarch in the USA?) It was delicious and I didn’t notice any adverse effects from this.
So, maybe a simple substitution of cornflour could work for a gluten free version? Just some food for thought.
At any rate, it was delicious! The color of the cake itself didn’t quite turn that nice pink color, but the icing did, so I just iced it all over and it looked fine. thanks for sharing this recipe!
Glad that you enjoyed this cake!
That’s great that the cake worked with plain flour and corn flour/starch. I tried a combination of different flours to make gluten free strawberry cupcakes, including corn and potato starch but I had to increase the amount of flour by around 150% and add a few other flours! It’s so interesting how differently gluten-free flours act!
Do you think I would be able to substitute the strawberries for blueberries? My son has asked for a blueberry cake for his birthday and I’m having difficulties finding a dairy free blueberry layer cake recipe.
I think that would work as strawberries have around the same amount of water as blueberries! However, I’m not sure what colour it will turn out. Maybe experiment with half of the recipe before your son’s birthday.
My daughter chose this recipe for her graduation cake. I enjoyed making the cake as I had never done frozen strawberries pureed and then mixed into the dry mixture before. The batter is thick but turns into a light cake that is not dry but perfectly moist. I was disappointed that my cake did not turn into the pink cake that your photos show. I used the exact beet powder that you recommended. The smells that came out of the oven were inviting and we all agreed that it is a great cake and one I will make again. Thank you for creating this delicious cake.
Yum! Tried making this one for my kids and they love it! Definitely recommended. Surprisingly perfect combination too for my hemp coffee.
So DELICIOUS! I made it for a birthday cake and everyone loved it!!
Aw, that’s amazing Lila! I’m so glad you all enjoyed this cake!
Tried this recipe today!
And my whole family loved it!!
Thank you so much 🙂
That’s so wonderful to hear Sujatha! Thanks for your lovely feedback!
Hi there! I tried this as a cake and it turned out great, now i want to try this out as cupcakes. I know you have another recipe especially for cupcakes but if i made this batter in cupcake molds would it work? I noticed the biggest difference between this recipe and the cupcake recipe is that you use WAY more baking powder than baking soda compared to this recipe, how does that affect the consistency of the final cake?
Hi Vanessa, I’m so glad you enjoyed this strawberry cake!
This cake actually contains more raising agents than the cupcake recipe. This cake has 1 tablespoon baking powder (same as 3 teaspoons) and 1 teaspoon baking soda, whereas the cupcakes have only 3 teaspoons of baking powder. Baking soda is three times more powerful than powder. Generally, larger cakes need more raising agents as they have less surface area exposed to the oven compared to cupcakes. I’d say the strawberry cake and cupcakes are extremely similar if made correctly! I hope that helps.
Looks amazing! What brand cake Pan did you use and where do you get the liner as well? Thanks in advance!
Thank you! My cake pans are by Masterpro or Tala (I’m not sure if they’re accessible internationally). My parchment paper is from ‘If You Care’ and cut from their regular rolls. I hope that helps!
How many ml of milk and oil should I use?
Hi Barbra, 85 grams of milk is 83 mL and 125 grams of oil is around 130 mL. However, if you’re using a scale for the dry ingredients (which I’d recommend), it’s easier to use grams for the liquid ingredients too. Hope that helps!
Best vegan strawberry cake ever!!! So soft and so flavourful! Loved it
Aw that’s such a lovely compliment, thanks Aaruni!
Hi, is there any alternative for sugar?
As mentioned in the blog post, coconut sugar may work for the cake but it will make the cake brown. I haven’t tried the cake with granulated sugar replacements (such as stevia or monk fruit) so I can’t vouch for results unfortunately. I don’t recommend using liquid sweeteners as they’ll make the cake too heavy. I hope that helps!
The recipe was fabulous and fresh. Usually my family dislikes cakes and frosting but this recipe took the cake. They loved the natural sweetness of the strawberry flavor and the light fluffy whipped cream topping. Definitely a recipe I’m going to use more often in the future!
That’s wonderful Victoria! It’s so so good when we can challenge the expectations of family and friends, especially if it’s cake! Thanks so much for your feedback 🙂
Absolutely loved this recipe! The cake came out so moist and perfectly strawberry-y. Mine was less vibrantly pink but still pretty. Served at a party and it was a hit!
Aw I’m so so glad to hear that! Thanks for your feedback Michelle 🙂
It was my first time using strawberries (or any fruit) in a cake , but the recipe was easy to follow. For myself I made it more difficult because I forgot I only had one cake pan, so I had to bake each layer one at a time and “guesstimate” what half of the batter was. That part turned out okay. The cake itself was not as pink as I thought (even though the batter was). I used a heaping Tbsp of beetroot powder since I already had it on hand, plus some red food dye, but it was almost like most of the color had baked away into a light brown. First I thought this meant I had overbaked the cakes, but this wasn’t the case. Oh, yeah, I also opted to add half a tsp of vanilla into the batter, so I wonder if this affected the color at all…
Despite the color “issues,” the cake was baked so perfectly (proud of myself), is super moist and delicious, and probably one of the best cakes I’ve had. I will be making it again!
Thanks for your feedback Rocky and I’m glad you enjoyed the cake overall!
Yes it can be tricky to know what colour the cake will bake into! I found that some brands of beetroot powder and food dye really fades away or browns. In this case, I opted for more powder/dye than I thought I’d need! And you should totally be proud of yourself for your cake! Thanks again for your comment!
The cake was delicious and the recipe was very easy to follow. I look forward to making some more recipes from this page!
Thanks so much Wendy!
Very quick and easy to follow recipe. This vegan strawberry cake was moist and scrumptious highly rated by family members also 😋🥰🍓
That’s wonderful! And even better your family loved it too :). Thanks so much Nicole!
I made this with regular whole milk and olive oil. I didn’t have beetroot powder, so my cake came out sort of a light golden pink. I am also at a high altitude, but that didn’t seem to affect anything. The texture and flavor are superb, it’s moist and fluffy, and the frosting is amaaaazing! The sign of a very, very good recipe that you can substitute things based on what you have and it still comes out perfectly. Thank you for a beautiful cake, Althea!
Aw I’m so glad you loved this cake and that it worked at a high altitude! Thank you so so much for taking the time to leave a comment Andrea!
Very easy recipe to make and it was so delicious. Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed this cake! Thanks for your feedback!