This Gluten-Free Vegan Strawberry Cake is fresh and fruity, full of strawberry flavour and naturally coloured! It's perfect for birthdays, Valentine's Day, Easter, Mother's Day, baby showers and bridal showers, and everything in between!
I thought it was time for a Gluten-Free Vegan Strawberry Cake - and unlike this Strawberry Sponge Layer Cake, I wanted to make a proper Strawberry Cake. Think moist, fluffy, strawberry-infused sponge slathered in lashings of creamy, strawberry-infused frosting.
How can you make a strawberry cake sponge batter that has a strong strawberry flavour without using an artificial strawberry flavouring or strawberry jam?
I decided to blend up fresh strawberries to create a gorgeous strawberry purée - it's fresh, packed full of natural strawberry flavour, and has the most incredible colour!
To create a pretty pink colour without artificial food colourings, I used beetroot powder.
You can buy beetroot powder in local health stores, as well as online.
If you can't get hold of beetroot powder, it's not a problem if you leave it out - you'll just end up with a slightly differently coloured cake, but the taste will be the same and still delicious!
How to make the cake
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
- Use a food processor, or blender or hand-held stick blender to whizz the strawberries until completely smooth.
- Mix together all the ingredients in a 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.
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.
Tip: Transfer onto a cooling rack and leave to cool completely before applying the frosting.
How to make the strawberry frosting
Another important component of this Strawberry Cake is the frosting - it's thick, rich and creamy, and packed full of strawberry flavour. I did think adding fresh strawberry purée to the frosting would create too much excess liquid, so I decided to use strawberry jam.
Tip: To make this refined sugar free, use a refined sugar free strawberry jam such as this one.
- Mix the coconut cream with strawberry jam and use an electric whisk to whip until fluffy.
- Apply the frosting to the cake using a palette knife for frosting.
How to decorate
- Fresh berries: strawberries, raspberries, blueberries etc.
- Freeze-dried raspberries or strawberries.
- Fresh mint.
How long does this keep for?
This Strawberry Cake tastes best eaten on the day it's made, but it keeps covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
Substitutions you can make
- You can use any type of oil: coconut oil, olive oil or vegetable oil.
- 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 refined sugar free version, use a refined sugar free strawberry jam.
- 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.
- You can replace the strawberries with blueberries, peaches or mango.
- You can use fresh or frozen strawberries - just make sure to defrost frozen ones and get rid of any excess water.
Can you use this recipe to make cupcakes instead?
Yes! Use my Gluten-Free Vegan Strawberry Cupcakes recipe!
More gluten-free vegan cake recipes
- Tropical Carrot Cake
- Chocolate Truffle Cake
- Tropical Carrot Cake
- Lemon Blueberry Cake
- Cherry Bakewell Cake
- Chocolate Cake
- Black Forest Cake
- Red Velvet Cake
- Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake
- Lemon Blueberry Layer Cake
- Lemon Pound 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.
Gluten-Free Vegan Strawberry Cake
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 300 g (10.5 oz) fresh strawberries , hulled
- 60 g (¼ cup) coconut oil (or sub olive or vegetable oil)
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 8 tablespoons maple syrup (or sub any other sweetener)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Pinch salt
- 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)
- ½ teaspoon beetroot powder (optional - to add red colour)
For the frosting:
- 400 g (14 oz) tin of full-fat coconut milk **
- Pinch beetroot powder (optional - to add red colour)
- 3 tablespoons strawberry jam (ensure refined sugar free if necessary)
Instructions
For the cake:
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit).
- Use a food processor, blender or hand-held stick blender to whizz the strawberries until completely smooth - you should end up with around 250ml (1 cup) strawberry purée.
- 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 strawberry purée 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 beetroot powder if using).
- Mix well, adding a tiny splash of any plant-based milk if it's looking too dry.
- Transfer mixture between two small greased baking tins lined with baking paper (I used two 7inch/18cm baking tins).
- Bake in oven for around 15 minutes until golden brown 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 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 beetroot powder (if using).
- Use an electric whisk (or a manual one and a lot of elbow grease) to whip up the coconut cream until light and fluffy.
- Add the strawberry jam and carefully mix it in.
To decorate:
- Once the sponges have cooled completely, place one sponge on a large plate or cake stand, and cover with half of the frosting.
- Place other sponge on top and use the remaining frosting to cover the top.
- Best when fresh, but keeps well covered in the fridge for up to a few days.
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.
Pamela
Hello do you know how many cups of cake batter this recipe makes? I'm working on a project and need six cups of batter.
Rhian Williams
I don't know, sorry!
Scott
45 minutes on and it’s still not cooked inside? I think the 15 minute cook time must be a typo 🤷♂️ . The coconut milk filling/ icing is far from nice, and not something most would consider as a good alternative to other options.
Rhian Williams
What type of gluten-free flour did you use? Did you make any substitutions?
Elizabeth J Eckhardt
I used coconut flour. The batter was very crumbly, so i added some soymilk, it still didn't turn into a smooth batter, so i wasn't sure if it was supposed to have that texture, and went ahead and baked it. It remained crumbly after cooking. Can you think of where I could have gone wrong?
Rhian Williams
Ah it'll be because you used coconut flour - you need to use a shop-bought gluten-free flour mix, rather than any flour that happens to be gluten-free. I recommend Dove's Farm gluten-free flour or Bob's Red Mill 1:1. You can also use white rice flour plus 2 tablespoons tapioca flour. Hope that helps!
Jennifer
If you need a gluten-free, dairy-free recipe, but not necessarily vegan, could you add an egg to this recipe? Or even flax seed egg replacement? Would that make the batter too runny?
Rhian Williams
You don't need a flaxseed egg replacement, this recipe holds together very well without eggs or any egg replacements. But I think you can add a normal egg if you wish...though I haven't tested it this way so can't guarantee results. Would love to hear how you get on if you try it!
Tia
Can I substitute white whole wheat pastry flour for the all purpose?
Rhian Williams
Yes!
Esther
Looks like my granddaughter will love this cake for her birthday! Can the frosting be frozen ahead of time, so I can frost when I get to her home? Thanks!
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much! Yes the frosting should be ok to freeze ahead of time. Would love to hear how you get on!