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Home » Recipes » Baking & Desserts

Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Strawberry Cake

Modified: Mar 5, 2025 · Published: Apr 3, 2019 by Rhian Williams

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A collage of two gluten-free vegan matcha strawberry cake photos

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!

A slice of gluten-free vegan matcha strawberry cake with strawberry frosting on a plate
What is matcha?


Matcha is green tea powder. It's great in desserts as it adds a beautiful colour and a deliciously earthy flavour.

Where can you buy matcha?


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 mixing bowl.

Tip: Use a measuring jug to measure out the plant-based milk.

Raw gluten-free vegan matcha cake batter in a glass mixing bowl
  • 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.

Raw gluten-free vegan matcha cake batter in two cake baking tins
  • Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
Two gluten-free vegan matcha cakes in silver baking tins
  • Transfer onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely before applying the frosting.
Two gluten-free vegan matcha cakes on a wire rack

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.

Vegan strawberry frosting in a bowl
  • Apply the frosting to the cake using a palette knife for frosting.
A gluten-free vegan matcha sponge with strawberry frosting being spread on it using a palette knife

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.
  • If you don't like strawberries, or prefer more matcha flavour, make my Matcha Cake with matcha frosting instead!
A slice of gluten-free vegan matcha strawberry cake with strawberry frosting on a plate with a fork taking off a mouthful

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
  • Matcha 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

A slice of gluten-free vegan matcha strawberry cake with strawberry frosting on a plate

Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Strawberry Cake

This Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Strawberry Cake is moist and fluffy and covered in a sweet and tangy strawberry frosting.
4.60 from 107 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: Japanese
Keyword: gluten-free matcha cake, vegan matcha cake, vegan matcha sponge
Prep Time: 20 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes minutes
Total Time: 35 minutes minutes
Servings: 8
Calories: 400kcal
Author: Rhian Williams

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 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

*The lemon juice is crucial as its acidity needs to react with the alkali bicarbonate of soda to make the sponge fluffy. If you don't want to use lemon juice, substitute with 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar instead.
**You can alternatively use almond flour.
Nutrition Facts
Gluten-Free Vegan Matcha Strawberry Cake
Amount Per Serving
Calories 400 Calories from Fat 252
% Daily Value*
Fat 28g43%
Saturated Fat 16g80%
Sodium 81mg3%
Potassium 180mg5%
Carbohydrates 34g11%
Fiber 3g12%
Sugar 15g17%
Protein 7g14%
Vitamin A 25IU1%
Vitamin C 2.4mg3%
Calcium 127mg13%
Iron 3.1mg17%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Made the recipe?Tag @rhiansrecipes on instagram and use the hashtag #rhiansrecipes!

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.

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Comments

    4.60 from 107 votes (98 ratings without comment)

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    Recipe Rating




  1. Jane

    June 09, 2021 at 3:17 pm

    Hi Rhian,
    Can I skip the baking powder?
    Thanks
    Jane

    Reply
    • Rhian Williams

      June 09, 2021 at 7:48 pm

      No sorry, the sponge won't rise without it and it'll be really dense and stodgy and frankly inedible!

  2. Sprawdzona Kuchnia

    July 27, 2021 at 2:34 pm

    5 stars
    Your recipe looks amazing! So vibrant and tasteful!

    Reply
    • Rhian Williams

      July 27, 2021 at 5:44 pm

      Thank you so much!

  3. Jennifer Choi

    August 23, 2021 at 1:44 am

    5 stars
    Hi, can i just use 1 baking tin instead of 2? Thanks

    Reply
    • Rhian Williams

      September 09, 2021 at 4:15 pm

      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.

  4. JJ

    October 31, 2021 at 7:45 am

    hello! can i completely omit the nuts/seeds?

    Reply
    • Rhian Williams

      November 09, 2021 at 11:58 pm

      Unfortunately not! You can use a fifth of the amount coconut flour though, in place of the almond flour.

  5. Caro

    April 16, 2022 at 8:14 pm

    Hi,
    Can I use oat flour as the gluten free flour

    Reply
    • Rhian Williams

      April 17, 2022 at 1:57 pm

      Yes should be ok!!

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Hi, I’m Rhian! I make easy, undetectably vegan + gluten-free recipes, including healthy comfort food and naturally sweetened desserts using plant-based ingredients.

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