This Vegan Strawberry Cake with vegan strawberry buttercream is out of this world. Super soft, insanely rich, and perfectly filled with natural strawberries!
Everyone deserves cake. That needs to be something politic slogan. Who wouldn’t be intrigued to at least hear what someone had to say if they thought everyone, literally everyone, should be able to enjoy a deliciously sweet and wonderful dessert. Anywho, this isn’t about that. This is about this incredible vegan strawberry cake.
Yes. Strawberry cake. Not just any strawberry cake, but a strawberry cake that’s free from dairy and eggs. Because no matter what your dietary needs are, you should be able to enjoy cake.
Many people want to skip the traditional vanilla and chocolate and are looking for something a bit different, but not too drastic. Enter: Vegan Strawberry Cake.
It’s still one of those classic, must try cake recipes, but it’s not too outrageous and it’s really easy to make also!
Watch how to make Vegan Strawberry Cake:
What ingredients do you need for dairy free strawberry cake?
Now that you’ve watched the video, you may be wondering what ingredients you need for this easy strawberry cake recipe. You will need:
- flour
- cake flour
- vegan sugar
- salt
- baking soda
- baking powder
- coconut oil
- strawberries
- strawberry extract
- nondairy milk
- apple cider vinegar
- powdered sugar
- vegan butter
Don’t let the list intimidate you! This cake is easy to make. It’s all done in one bowl! And includes all the ingredients that you also need for the dairy free strawberry buttercream frosting.
How do you make a vegan strawberry cake?
This cake is so easy to make! It’s an almost breeze, but does take a little bit of your time. To start, you want to make the strawberry puree and the almond buttermilk. Set both aside. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
In a large bowl, you are going to add all your dry ingredients. Those ingredients are the flour, cake flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Whisk those together.
Then, Add in most of the wet ingredients. Those ingredients are your melted coconut oil, strawberry extract and vegan buttermilk.
Beat these together with a mixer. Then, add in the strawberry puree and beat again.
Pour half the batter into a 9″ cake pan greased and lightly floured. Repeat with remaining batter in another cake pan.
Bake for 30-35 minutes on until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool before frosting.
Do I have to use cake flour?
Cake flour is a type of flour that has a lower protein content than regular flour. Because of that, the results that you get are a lighter, airier, and fluffier cake.
To answer the question, no, you do not have to use cake flour. You can substitute the same amount of cake flour for flour regular instead. (However, we recommend it! 😉 )
How do you make strawberry puree?
To make the strawberry puree, you just throw fresh strawberries into a high powdered blender and pulse until you have a nice consistency. If you do not like chunks of strawberries, you can puree even more small, or strain out the chunks.
However, for this recipe, the bigger pieces add in you being able to see and really taste the strawberries, so we recommend that you leave some chunkier pieces.
CAN I MAKE THIS INTO DAIRY FREE STRAWBERRY CUPCAKES?
You can absolutely make this into dairy free strawberry cupcakes. Simply make the recipe as normal and then instead of greasing cake pans, spray a cupcake pan or fill with liners. Fill each one up ¾ of the way. You’ll want to reduce the cooking time to 15-20 minutes.
Can you make this Top 8 Allergen Free cake?
The ingredients that are in this vegan strawberry cake that are not Top 8 Allergen free are the flours, coconut oil, vegan buttermilk, and vegan butter. For the flours, I’d suggest something like GF Measure for Measure by King Arthur.
For the coconut oil, just replace it with a lightly flavored oil, like grapeseed.
For the vegan buttermilk, we used almond milk, but free free to use what’s at home.
And lastly, the vegan butter. Most butters are made with soy. We love the Earth Balance soy free tubs in the red containers.
Can I make this vegan strawberry cake ahead of time?
You may be wondering if you can prep this cake ahead of time. The answer is yes!
You can make the cake and the frosting up to 3 days before needed. Prepare them the same way.
Store the strawberry buttercream in an air tight container in the fridge.
For the cake, wrap in plastic wrap and store at room temperature.
Do not frosting the cake until the day you plan to to serve.
Can I use a different frosting other than vegan strawberry buttercream frosting?
You do not have to use strawberry frosting on this cake (however, we highly recommend the pairing). If you’d like, you can try the
What are other vegan cake recipes that I should try?
Just because you have food allergies or preferences, doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t be able to have great tasting desserts. We’d even venture to say that these are better than their “normal” counterparts. These are some other dairy free cake recipes that you should try:
- The Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Carrot Cake
- Vegan Lemon Pound Cake
- Try these vegan vanilla cupcakes in a cake pan
- Vegan Banana Chocolate Chip Cake
Pin this vegan strawberry cake for later:
Vegan Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake
- 1 pint fresh strawberries
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (see post for allergies notes)
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1 cup vegan sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup coconut oil, melted (see post for food allergies notes)
- 2 teaspoon strawberry extract
- 1 recipe for strawberry buttercream frosting
Instructions
- Make the strawberry puree: Add the fresh strawberries to a blender and blend until small pieces remain. Make the vegan buttermilk: Pour 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar into a 1 cup measuring cup and fill the remaining cup with almond milk. Grease and lightly flour 2 9″ cake pans. Set both aside.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, add the flour, cake flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Whisk together.
- Add in melted coconut oil, strawberry extract and vegan buttermilk. Beat with a mixer until almost completely combine (this will be a thick dough).
- Add the strawberry puree and beat again.
- Pour half the batter into 1 cake pan. Repeat with remaining batter in another cake pan.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes on until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and let cool before frosting.
- Best stored in fridge for the icing to not melt. If making ahead, best to frosting day of.
For the Strawberry Buttercream Frosting
- Puree the strawberries like above for the cake.
- In a bowl, beat cold butter just enough to make it apart.
- Add half the powdered sugar. Beat
- Add strawberry puree and extract. Beat again.
- Add rest of powdered sugar. Beat until fully combined.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Mary
This recipe was AMAZING! I made this this past month for my sister’s birthday and everyone went bonkers over it. The cakes turned out soooooo moist and the buttercream frosting was so good you could eat it by the spoonful. However, I could not find strawberry extract anywhere near where I live so I substituted the extract with freeze dried strawberries! It was epic!! Thank you for making baking dairy free so delicious!
Vickie
I made this cake yesterday and it turned out so good! I couldn’t find strawberry extract so used strawberry syrup! also store didn’t have cake flour so I used almond flour.
Larisha Bernard
Glad it worked well for you!
Mary
This recipe was AMAZING! I made this this past month for my sister birthday and everyone went bonkers over it. The cakes turned out soooooo moist and the buttercream frosting was so good you could eat it by the spoonful. However, I could not find strawberry extract anywhere near where I live so I substituted the extract with fried dried strawberries! It was epic!! Thank you for making baking dairy free so delicious!
LarishaBernard
love it! So happy to hear that
Balaka
I am not a fan of strawberry cake. But decided baking it by myself using your recipe it came out really well. I am a vegetarian so used dairy milk and the amount of strawberry extract was very strong for me so lowered a bit of it. This recipe is a must try. Thank you Larisha and Andrew. Love you.
LarishaBernard
So happy to hear that!
Emilia
The recipe is intended as dairy free and is delicious that way so why not try something new, find it’s just as delicious, and even better actually because you spare some animal suffering along the way. Just a thought.
LarishaBernard
So glad you enjoyed it
Brenda
The best strawberry vegan cake ever! My husband and I made it together. The recipe was easy to follow. We halved the strawberry extract in the cake and icing and the taste was perfect. The cake was moist and the icing delicious. We took our friends a few pieces, they are 85, and they had no idea it was vegan. They loved it, too.
Thank you for another great recipe!!
Larisha Bernard
Love that it was wonderful for everyone!
Kendra
How many grams of flour and cake flour do you use because I keep ending up with runny batter before the purée.
LarishaBernard
Hopefully this will help you https://makeitdairyfree.com/basic-metric-conversion-chart/
Patricia
Hello, thank you very much for this recipe. I wonder if it’s possible to use mangoes instead of strawberries.
By the way I tried your coconut cake recipe and was fantastic.
Blessings. Hare Krishna
LarishaBernard
Hi! We’ve never tried, but don’t see why it wouldn’t work!
Shari
I know the ingredients call for 1 pint of fresh strawberries , but how much would that be after it has been pureed ? I buy large containers of strawberries, wash them, then store them in my own containers. So I do not know how much to use.
LarishaBernard
It’s approximately 3/4 pound or 12oz
Jen
I absolutely loved this recipe. 🥰🥰🥰
Can I replace the strawberries with raspberries next time and will it work the same.
LarishaCampbell
So happy you loved the recipe, thanks for sharing. Yes you could do that. I would use fresh raspberries
Alina
Would this be okay without strawberry extract and rely just on the fresh strawberries?
LarishaCampbell
It would be absolutely fine, just not as strong as a strawberry flavor.
Garyallia
We made it as a birthday cake with vegan whipped cream on the outside! Great recipe! The cake full of strawberry flavor! I think for our taste we would like some more buttercream!!
LarishaCampbell
Yay! We are so excited that you loved the recipe. Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a review! Have a great week
Effe
Do you think olive oil would be ok to replace the coconut oil in the recipe?
LarishaCampbell
I think olive oil has too strong of a flavor profile for it personally, I would choose a more neutral oil like grapeseed, but if you don’t mind the taste, this it would work yes.
Christy
Seems that the ingredients for the frosting aren’t listed in the recipe card at the bottom!
LarishaCampbell
Hi Christy. It is hyperlinked in the ingredients. It’s the very last ingredient
Bianca
Made it for my mom for Mother’s Day. So delicious, everyone loved it!
LarishaCampbell
Hey Bianca! Thank you so much for sharing! Completely made our day! We are so happy that you loved it!