This fresh vegan strawberry cornbread cake is made in a skillet and topped with tart lemon glaze. It’s the perfect sweet treat for spring and summer!
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This vegan strawberry cornbread cake is absolutely divine but also incredibly easy to make.
It needs just one bowl and you don’t even need a mixer. It takes about 10 minutes of prep time and you just have to wait for it to cook. It’s so so simple. Perfect with fresh in season strawberries if you are able to get your hands on some!
This cake is a perfect vegan Juneteeth cake recipe as the inspiration is rooted in southern culture and the red from the strawberries represents the blood sacrificed and resiliency of African Americans.
VEGAN STRAWBERRY CORNBREAD CAKE INGREDIENTS:
Below are notes about the main ingredients before we get into the full recipe located lower in this post on how to make these vegan strawberry skillet cake:
- Apple Cider Vinegar and Dairy Free Milk – When you mixed these two together, you get a vegan buttermilk.
- Unsweetened Applesauce – applesauce is taking the place of our eggs here
- Dairy Free Butter – vegan butter provides richness, moisture, and softness to a cake
- Maple Syrup and Brown Sugar – we love the combination of different sugars. Not only do they provide sweetness, but they help with moisture as well.
- Lemon (Zest and Juice) – lemon mixed with berries is an explosion for your taste buds, but it also helps leaven the cake
- Flour – we are using all purpose flour for this recipe
- Cornmeal – because this is a vegan cornbread cake, we are combining cornmeal with flour to give that taste and texture that you love about cornbread but in a cake form
- Strawberries – the star of the dish to provide that flavor and deliciousness in our cake
SUBSTITUTIONS AND VARIATIONS:
- Vinegar – white vinegar or more lemon juice can be substituted for the apple cider vinegar
- Dairy Free Milk – any non-dairy milk can be used
- Unsweetened Applesauce – you can substitute with another fruit puree
- Dairy Free Butter – another neutral oil can be used
- Sugar – you can use all maple syrup or all cane sugar. Another option would be date syrup, agave, or coconut sugar.
- Flour – you can sub with gluten free flour or cake flour if needed
- Strawberries – try this with other berries like raspberries, blackberries or blueberries
Frequently Asked Questions:
No! Any oven safe baking dish will work. Just be mindful of the depth, width and length as it will adjust cooking time as needed.
Absolutely! Did I just make your day? You can swap out the vegan all-purpose flour for Gluten Free Cup for Cup flour. All the other ingredients that we use in this recipe are naturally gluten free and no swaps are needed.
Besides the flour, that you can use gluten free as recommended above, the only other ingredient is the vegan butter which typically contains soy.
Just choose a soy free vegan butter like Flora Plant Butter. Any dairy free milk can be used that is safe for your allergens.
This vegan cornbread cake is rich in flavor while still remaining moist. The right amount of fat (oil) combined with making our own dairy free buttermilk (acid) and adding in leavening agents (baking powder) all act together to insure this will not be a dry vegan cake.
Also, the importance of minimally processing the ingredients together. We only mix until combined. We do this because the longer you mix flour, the more gluten forms making for a not so great cake.
By adding some acid to your batter, you are creating a vegan cake that is moist and delicious. It helps to break down the tough gluten strands, yielding in the most delicious vegan strawberry cornbread cake recipe. Don’t skip this step!
COULD I USE FROSTING INSTEAD OF A GLAZE?
We highly recommend use our our vegan lemon glaze recipe below; however, we know that some people want other options than chocolate on chocolate. Other ideas for how to frosting a dairy free chocolate cake are:
- Using Dairy Free Whipped Topping (Homemade “Cool Whip”)
- Vegan Vanilla Frosting
- Vegan Strawberry Frosting
- Vegan Buttercream Frosting
What other vegan cake ideas could I make?
Once you have perfected this vegan cake, you may be looking out for other delicious dairy free cupcakes or cakes. Here are some dairy free dessert recipe ideas.
- Vegan Carrot Cake Cupcakes
- Vegan Coconut Cake
- Dye Free Red Velvet Cupcakes
- Vegan Strawberry Cake
- The Best Vegan Chocolate Cake
- Vegan Apple Pie
- Vegan Carrot Cake
- The Best Vegan Chocolate Lava Cakes
- Vegan Lemon Pound Cake
Pin this vegan strawberry cornbread cake for later!
🥳 Get the Full Recipe
Vegan Strawberry Cornbread Cake
Ingredients
- ½ tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- ½ cup dairy free milk
- ½ cup unsweetened applesauce
- ½ cup dairy free butter, melted
- ½ cup maple syrup
- 2 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 teaspoon lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ cups flour
- ¾ cup cornmeal
- 2 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 cups fresh strawberries, halved
Vegan Lemon Glaze
- 3 tablespoon vegan butter, melted
- 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 10" cast iron skillet (or oven safe dish). Set aside. Combine apple cider vinegar and dairy free milk together (this makes vegan buttermilk). Let set for at least 5 minutes.
- When ready, to a large bowl, add vegan buttermilk, unsweetened applesauce, melted butter, maple syrup, brown sugar, lemon zest and vanilla. Whisk or beat together well.
- Add in flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. Fold together with a spatula just until mixture is combined. Do not mover mix.
- Fold in strawberries gently.
- Pour batter into the prepared oven safe dish. Add additional halved strawberries at the top if desired, pushing down gently.
- Bake 35-45 minutes. Check at 30 minutes and if browning too much on top, carefully add foil on top. Cook until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and let set for 10 minutes. While waiting whisk all the ingredients for the glaze together. Then when ready, drizzle glaze over cake. Cut, serve, enjoy.
Another winning recipe!! I used only 1 Tbsp brown sugar and cut my strawberries into thirds because they were ginormous. Everything else I used the recipe as written. My whole family loved it. I made it a couple hours ahead and it stayed perfectly fine, didn’t get soggy. I’ll be making this again and again for sure!
So glad it was a hit!
This recipe is amazing! The cake is soft and the strawberries cook down amazingly. This was my first try at vegan baking and I loved it!
so happy you liked it!
Amazing recipe (haven’t had a bad one from you guys!) might be my new favorite cake! For sure one of the best I’ve made in a while! Thanks!
Aww thanks! Happy to hear you liked it
Hi there! The recipe looks amazing. Do you think the cornbread base would work on its own or even with different flavors?
Sure you could