This Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Strawberry Sponge Cake comes with the most deliciously fruity frosting and is loaded with sweet berries!
I love using matcha green tea powder in desserts, as it adds a beautiful colour and delicious earthy flavour. I’ve previously used it to make:
So, it definitely made sense for me to try it out in a sponge layer cake!
I used my go-to sponge cake recipe for this, which I love for several reasons:
- It’s undetectably vegan, gluten-free and refined sugar free
- It has a moist and fluffy texture
- It’s super easy to make: think one bowl and simple ingredients that you’ll probably have on hand already
- It’s versatile and customisable, as you can use any oil you like (coconut, vegetable or olive all work well) and you can substitute the maple syrup with any other sweetener of choice, such as agave syrup or brown rice syrup
But the real star of this Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Strawberry Sponge Cake is the magical, 2-ingredient strawberry buttercream frosting! All you need to do to make this frosting, is whip up some coconut whipped cream (or you can substitute with shop-bought coconut yogurt if you’re feeling lazy!) and mix in some strawberry jam. To keep it refined sugar free, make sure you buy a naturally sweetened jam.
Matcha and strawberry are a match(a) made in heaven and I also love the combination of pastel green with pastel pink, and the slight bitterness of the matcha perfectly compliments the nectar-like sweetness of the strawberry frosting.
Then all you need to do is load up the cake with allll the fresh berries. I used strawberries, blackberries and cherries for a nice balance of sweetness and tartness. You can also sprinkle over some sprigs of fresh mint and pretty little edible flowers if you’re feeling fancy.
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 on Instagram! Thank you.
Helpful tools to make this Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Strawberry Sponge Cake:
For the cake:
glass mixing bowl
measuring jug
18 cm / 7 inch sandwich baking tin
baking paper
cooling rack
For the frosting:
electric whisk
palette knife for frosting
Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Strawberry Sponge Cake
Ingredients
- 60 g (1/4 cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
- 230 ml (1 cup) unsweetened almond milk (or any other plant-based milk)
- Juice of 1 lemon*
- 8 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch of salt
- 150 g (1 1/4 cup) ground almonds** (almond meal)
- 150 g (1 1/4 cup) gluten-free flour blend (or sub plain flour if not gluten-free)
- 2 heaped teaspoons baking power (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
- 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1-2 teaspoons matcha powder to taste
For the strawberry frosting:
- 400 g (14oz) tin of full-fat coconut milk***
- 2 tablespoons strawberry jam (refined sugar free if necessary)
To decorate:
- 200 g (7oz) fresh berries, chopped into smaller pieces if necessary - I used strawberries, blackberries and cherries
- Few sprigs fresh mint
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, salt 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 decorate:
- Once the sponges have cooled completely, place one sponge on a large plate or cake stand, and cover with half of the cream
- Spread the strawberry frosting over this layer of cream and add half of the berries
- Place other sponge on top and use remaining frosting to cover the top
- Cover with the remaining berries
- Best eaten on the day or day after it's made
Notes
almond flour
***You can alternatively use 200g (7oz) coconut yogurtDisclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you click through and purchase any of the 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.
Petra
Made this for a friend’s birthday and it was amazing – the matcha and strawberry go together so well!
Rhian Williams
Thank you!
L C
Thank you for sharing this recipe. Is there any substitution I can use for the gluten free flour to make this grain free. I know it’s almost impossible to bake like that but was just wondering if arrowroot or tapocia flour can be used in a smaller quantity for this beautiful cake. Thank you
Rhian Williams
Thank you! You could use buckwheat flour. I’m not sure about arrowroot or tapioca flour, but would love to hear how you get on if you try anything!
Dia
Hi…can we quit frosting Part ..only cake will taste good ..can we substitute flour with wheat flour
Rhian Williams
Yes the cake by itself will be fine and you can use wheat flour no problem!
Dia
I tried …it was awesome thanks pls help me shelf life of it and do we need to referigerate it
Rhian Williams
That’s great, thank you so much! You can keep it in the fridge for up to a few days!
Grace
Hi there, all of your recipes look so wonderful and I am excited to try this cake! I am allergic to nuts and wondering what I can sub the almond meal for? Does the cake need this component or could I use extra AP GF flour instead? I have experience with coconut flour and it just does not bake without eggs, so I don’t want to ruin the cake with that. Thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Rhian Williams
Hi! Thank you so much! I’ve tried this recipe with more all purpose gluten-free flour in place of the almonds and it didn’t work, however substituting the almonds with a fifth of the amount coconut flour worked really well! I hope that helps!
Anna
Hi, can I sub almond meal with all purpose wheat flour? Or do I need almond meal? I am making a non gluten free version
Rhian Williams
I did test this with 100% wheat flour and it didn’t turn out as well as it did using half almond meal so would definitely recommend using the almond meal if you can!
Dora
Hi Rhian, as lemons come in different sizes, when you say “juice of 1 lemon”, how many tablespoons will that be? Around 4 tablespoons?
Rhian Williams
Hi! Yes around 4 tablespoons! Sorry I agree it’s unclear to say 1 lemon, I’ll amend it. Thank you for letting me know!
Sharon
I made it recently using only 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (I made it for a friend, so I did not taste the cake) – will that affect the cake in any way?
Rhian Williams
No that should be fine, the exact amount of lemon juice doesn’t really matter too much (within reason)!
Emy
Thanks for all your comments. Can’t wait to try to make this recipe hope it turns out just they way it looks.
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, hope you’ll love it!