Hi friends! Today’s recipe is my unique twist on a classic British Victoria sponge cake which I have aptly called a strawberry vanilla cake! This cake is an absolute showstopper and will have family and friends marvelling at your awesome baking skills despite how easy this recipe is! It is also dairy-free, nut-free and completely vegan so everyone can enjoy a piece!

I have been experimenting with strawberry cakes for quite a while and it’s a little tricky to get the perfect texture and flavour. Strawberries are full of water so if you add too many to a cake better you end up with a heavy and stodgy final cake. After mainy attempts and late night nibbling on cake, I’ve made the perfect recipe! If you are not a fan of strawberries then not to fret – check out my other recipes here!

To make this recipe, I adapted my favourite easy vanilla cake recipe that you’ll find here. Similar to my vanilla cake recipe I don’t use any commercial egg replacers. For easy bakes, I like to keep the ingredients simple and you can achieve the perfect aerated texture using shop-bought leavening agents. To make the strawberry layer, we use fresh strawberries blitzed in a food processor with a pinch of colouring to bring out the red colour. Be careful to make sure you use vegan colouring because a lot of red colouring is derived from cochineal insects. See a list of all my product recommendations at the end of this page just before the recipe. 

The tricky ingredient for this kind of cake is finding a suitable vegan cream alternative. I had great success using Oatly’s whippable cream and also Elmlea vegan double cream. Both work wonderfully for this recipe but I appreciate that many countries don’t have access to these new ingredients so you can also use coconut cream for this recipe. Just keep the cake chilled as much as possible because coconut cream will melt in warm temperatures. 

Baking tips:

1. I exclusively use grams in this recipe so that scales can be used throughout. For liquids like plant milk or water, 100g = 100ml so you can swap to ml if it’s easier to use.
2. I always recommend making sure all your ingredients are at room temperature. Warmer cake batter will cook more evenly in the oven and you’ll get flatter layers for layering.
3. The recipe I’ve written gets a little “mathsy” (variously adding and subtracting half weights) but as long as you have an accurate kitchen scales you’ll be fine. Also, a few measuring bowls!
4. This recipe makes two medium sized 8-inch layers. You can also use 4x 6-inch pans for a taller layer cake! 
5. I recommend using vegan butter as the fat in this cake because butter actually provides some nice flavour to a cake. You can substitute vegan butter for vegetable oil or other neutral oils to get a more moist cake but it will lose some flavour! 
6. I recommend about 1/2 tsp of red gel food colouring in the strawberry layer to get the deep, rich, red colour you can see in the photos but if you want the cake any brighter feel free to add a little more. You absolutely must use gel colouring or you won’t get the same colour. Some natural dyes will fade too so just do some research before you make any substitutions.

If you’re in the UK, I’ve provided a list below with some of the key ingredients I’ve used…

Ingredients:

• For the red gel food colouring I use sugar flair extra red (completely vegan).
• My go-to vegan butter is the one from Naturli.
• For the plant milk, I used Alpro soy milk but you can use another other of the plant milks such as oat or rice if you need to be soy/nut free!
• For the vegan cream I use Oatly’s whippable cream and also Elmlea vegan double cream.

Possible substitutions:

• Caster sugar can be swapped for coconut sugar for a refined sugar free versi
• This cake can be made gluten-free by using a gluten-free flour blend instead of the plain flour. I would recommend Doves farm! Add 1/2 tsp xanthan gum to the dry mix too.
• Custard powder can be swapped for cornstarch (or “cornflour” in the UK but it is the *starch*)
• Strawberries can be swapped for raspberries or other red fruit
• Red gel food colouring can be swapped for 1 tbsp beetroot powder but it will likely be less bright.

In this recipe you’ll need:

• 2 x 8-inch cake tins (ideally loose bottom
• accurate kitchen scales

5 from 1 reviews

Strawberry Vanilla Cake

August 30, 2021

Servings: 12

Prep: 20 min

Cook: 40 min

Total: 2 hr

Difficulty: Medium

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This strawberry vanilla cake is so fluffy and moist yet completely dairy-free, egg-free and vegan! It's a vegan Victoria sponge completely reimagined with a delicious jam filling and cream on the outside instead of the inside!

By: Project Vegan Baking

Ingredients

• Cakes:
• 400g plain flour
• 300g caster sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp sea salt
• 200g +100g plant milk, room temp
• 150g vegan butter, melted
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 10g (1 tbsp) custard powder
• 1 tbsp golden flax meal
• 120g strawberry puree (200-250g strawberries)
• 2 tsp strawberry extract (optional)
• 1/2 tsp red gel food colouring or 2 tsp beetroot powder (optional)
• 300g strawberry jam
• Cream frosting:
• 250ml Oatly whippable cream (or coconut cream), chilled
• 45g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp lemon juice

Directions

• Step 1 Pre-heat the oven to 180C (356F). Grease two 8-inch round cake tins with vegan butter. Cut circular discs of parchment to place at the bottom of the tins.
• Step 2 Mix the 1 tbsp flax meal with 3 tbsp hot water and set aside for 5 minutes to thicken. This is called a “flax egg”.
• Step 3 While you wait, make the strawberry puree by placing 200g strawberries into a food processor and pulsing until smooth. Pour the puree through a sieve into a bowl and measure out 120g. Set aside.
• Step 4 Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt into a mixing bowl and whisk thoroughly. Use a scale to split this into two separate bowls (you should have approximately 356g in each bowl).
• Step 5 Add the custard powder to one half of the dry mix (and beetroot powder to the other if you are using that) and set aside.
• Step 6 Mix 200g of plant milk (reserve 100g) with the 150g melted butter and the vanilla extract. Split this evenly into two small bowls (you should have approximately 180g in each bowl).
• Step 7 Add the 120g strawberry puree and the red food colouring to one of the bowls to make 300g “red liquids”. Then add the remaining 100g of plant milk and the flax egg to the other bowl to make approximately 300g “vanilla liquids”.
• Step 8 At this point you should have 4 bowls – 1 dry mix and 1 wet mix for the vanilla layer (the one with the custard powder and then the wet mix with the flax egg), and 1 dry and 1 wet mix for the strawberry layer (the two remaining bowls).
• Step 9 Mix the wet and dry mixes together in their respective pairs to create two batters – one vanilla and one strawberry. Be careful not to overmix
• Step 10 30 seconds of whisking is enough. Pour these into the prepared cake tins and place into the oven to bake for 35-40minutes.
• Step 11 Bake for 35-40 minutes. Use a toothpick at the 35-minute mark to check they are cooked.
• Step 12 Remove from the oven and place onto a cooling rack. After 1 hour of cooling, wrap them up and place them in the fridge to chill until completely cool (1 further hour).
• Step 13 Assembly: Trim the domes off the cake layers if you want perfectly flat layers.
• Step 14 Remove the parchment paper from the vanilla cake and place on a cake board/stand. Spoon the jam onto the cake and spread into an even layer. Remove the parchment from the strawberry layer and place this on top. Push down firmly to prevent the layers from sliding. Set aside.
• Step 15 Pour the vegan whipping cream into a mixing bowl and using an electric whisk or stand mixer to whip it up for 3-5 minutes. Once it reaches soft peaks, spoon in the icing sugar and lemon juice. Whip for a further minute.
• Step 16 Plop the cream onto the cake using a spatula and spread it around the cake. Rotate the cake board to get an even finish.
• Step 17 Decorate with fresh fruit, chocolate or flowers and serve!