This Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Strawberry Cake is moist and fluffy and covered in a sweet and tangy 2-ingredient strawberry frosting. It's colourful and pretty, has an elegant flavour and the slightly bitter matcha perfectly compliments the sweet-tart strawberry frosting. It's also refined sugar free, comes together in one bowl and is easily customisable. Perfect for Christmas, birthdays or Easter!
Matcha is green tea powder. It's great in desserts as it adds a beautiful colour and a deliciously earthy flavour.
You can buy matcha in most supermarkets (in the tea section), local health stores, online or in Asian supermarkets.
How to make the cake
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Mix together all the ingredients in a glass mixing bowl.
Tip: Use a measuring jug to measure out the plant-based milk.
- Transfer into two 18 cm / 7 inch sandwich baking tins.
Tip: Line the tins with greased baking paper to make the sponges easier to remove afterwards.
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
- Transfer onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely before applying the frosting.
How to make the strawberry frosting
- Mix the coconut cream with strawberry jam and use an electric whisk to whip until fluffy.
Tip: To make this refined sugar free, use a refined sugar free strawberry jam such as this one.
- Apply the frosting to the cake using a palette knife for frosting.
How to decorate
- Fresh berries: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries etc.
- Chopped pistachios.
- Fresh cherries.
- Freeze-dried raspberries or strawberries.
How long does this Matcha Strawberry Cake keep for?
This Matcha Strawberry Cake tastes best eaten on the day it's made.
Substitutions you can make
- You can use any type of oil: coconut oil, olive oil or vegetable oil.
- You can use any type of plant-based milk: almond milk, rice milk, soy milk, cashew milk, oat milk etc.
- You can use any type of liquid sweetener: maple syrup, agave syrup, brown rice syrup etc.
- You can replace the ground almonds (almond meal/almond flour) with ground walnuts.
- For a nut-free version: replace the ground almonds (almond meal/almond flour) with ground sunflower seeds.
- You can use plain flour instead of the gluten-free flour if you’re not gluten-free.
More gluten-free vegan cake recipes
- Tropical Carrot Cake
- Lemon Blueberry Cake
- Cherry Bakewell Cake
- Chocolate Cake
- Orange Cake
- Strawberry Cake
- Black Forest Cake
- Red Velvet Cake
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake
- Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake
- Lemon Pound Cake
- Orange Drizzle Cake
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Watch how to make this recipe
Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 60 g (¼ cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
- 230 ml (1 cup) unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice *
- 8 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) ground almonds (almond meal) **
- 150 g (1 ¼ cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
- 2 heaped teaspoons baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- ¼ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1 ½ teaspoons (1.5 teaspoons ) matcha powder to taste
For the strawberry frosting:
- 400 g (14 oz) tin of full-fat coconut milk
- 2 tablespoons strawberry jam (refined sugar free if necessary)
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Place the coconut oil in a large bowl and melt over a saucepan of boiling water or in the microwave (skip this step if using any other oil).
- Once melted, add the milk to the same bowl along with the lemon juice, maple syrup, vanilla and ground almonds.
- Sift in the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and matcha powder.
- Mix well, adding a tiny splash more milk if it's looking too dry.
- Transfer mixture between two small greased baking tins lined with baking paper (I used two 7inch/18cm tins).
- Bake in oven for around 15 minutes until risen and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
- Once out the oven, immediately remove cakes from baking tins and transfer onto a wire rack to cool.
For the strawberry frosting:
- You'll need to keep your tin of coconut milk in the fridge overnight for the rich creamy bit to separate from the watery bit at the bottom. Make sure it is full fat coconut milk, otherwise this separation won't happen and you won't be able to make this cream!
- Open the tin upside down - the coconut cream will be at the bottom and you can just pour off the watery liquid (save this for adding to soups or smoothies).
- Place the thick, creamy part into a bowl.
- Add the strawberry jam.
- Use an electric whisk (or a manual one and a lot of elbow grease) to whip up the coconut cream until light and fluffy.
To assemble:
- Once the sponges have cooled completely, place one sponge on a large plate or cake stand, and cover with half of the strawberry frosting.
- Place other sponge on top and use remaining frosting to cover the top.
- Decorate as desired.
- Tastes best eaten on the day.
Video
Notes
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you purchase any of these products, a small percentage will come to me with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
Jane
Hi Rhian,
Can I skip the baking powder?
Thanks
Jane
Rhian Williams
No sorry, the sponge won't rise without it and it'll be really dense and stodgy and frankly inedible!
Sprawdzona Kuchnia
Your recipe looks amazing! So vibrant and tasteful!
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much!
Jennifer Choi
Hi, can i just use 1 baking tin instead of 2? Thanks
Rhian Williams
Yes you can! Just adjust baking time accordingly. For example, if baking in one baking tin of the same size, you'd need to bake for around 30 minutes instead of 15 minutes.