How Make Strawberry Cake

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Over 9k people, every month search for ‘how make strawberry cake’ . Although grammatically incorrect, I have broken down exactly how to make the easiest and tastiest show-stopping strawberry cake.

This strawberry layered cake recipe makes the softest and fluffiest vegan strawberry sponge cake. You wouldn't even know it was gluten free let alone vegan!! And it’s topped with the fluffiest vegan strawberry buttercream.

Why you’ll love this three layer strawberry cake

This layered strawberry shortcake cake is marbled with white vanilla sponge and pink strawberry to create a showstopper cake!
This strawberry shortcake layered cake is the perfect cake for a celebration, picnic or tea party.

Expert Baking Tips for this homemade strawberry layered cake

Although the recipe for this 3 layer strawberry cake is super simple, here are just a few expert tips i'd recommend:

Make sure your milk is at room temperature before adding it to your dry ingredients, this will help prevent any lumps from forming.
Make sure your cake tins are properly prepared before pouring the batter in. Check out my guide here to prepare your cake tin.
To create a marble effect with the 2 batters, dollop the colours one after another alternatively, pink on top of the white and vice versa. Then go in with a toothpick and swivel it around to create a marble effect.

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Ingredients for strawberry cake

To make this a strawberry cake no eggs recipe, you will need:

Xanthan gum - This will prevent the cake from crumbling when sliced and act as a stabilizer.
Oil - Any oil works well here, flavoured like olive oil or not. Like sunflower oil. As we are only using a little oil, it won’t overpower the strawberry and vanilla flavour either way.
Gluten-free self-raising flour - If you didn't want to make these gluten-free simply substitute this for normal self-raising flour. There’s no need to add xanthan gum if you're not making these gluten-free.
Strawberry extract - this will be mixed into the batter to add a sweet fresh strawberry flavour to the sponge.
Plant-based milk - I used oat whole milk for this recipe. But any other plant-based milk like soy or almond milk will also work well.
Apple cider vinegar - This will react with the baking soda, to create air bubbles and help the sponge rise when baked.
Baking powder & Bicarbonate of soda - These rising agents help to create a soft and airy sponge.
Maple Sugar - I used maple sugar for this cake which added a slight caramelised flavour to the sponge which paired beautifully with the strawberry.

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Other Flavour Variations And Mix-ins

They are lots of ways to personalize and adapt this recipe for a specific flavor profile or decorate it for a celebration.

Celebratory Cake

Say for example, you’d like to make this more of a celebratory cake, why not throw in a few sprinkles into the vanilla cake batter to create a funfetti, strawberry marble cake! And to decorate, incorporate more sprinkles to the top of the iced cake.

100% Strawberry

Or perhaps, you’d like to keep to a completely strawberry cake. In this case, remove the step of dividing the batter in two and color and flavor the one batter!

Great classic

Another great classic - chocolate and strawberries. To make this, one separating the batter into 2 bowls instead of flavouring one vanilla, add 15g coco powder and 1tbsp milk. The addition of milk will prevent the cake from becomg too dry, as we just increased the quantity of dry ingredients when adding the coco.

Then following the same methods as this recipe, alternatively dollop the chocolate batter over the strawberry and marble it together.

When assembling the cake you can stick to a strawberry flavored buttercream to ice the cake or chocolate!

Let me know in the comments if you try these variations or if you came up with your own!

Strawberry cake easy recipe

How to make a layered cake with strawberry filling - Step-by step

Vegan dairy free strawberry cake

Begin by making your 'buttermilk' by combining your plant-based milk and vinegar together. Set aside for 5mins while you mix together the dry ingredients.
Combine all the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
Then add the vanilla, maple syrup and oil into the 'buttermilk' mixture.
Once combined, pour the 'buttermilk' mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Transfer ½ the batter into a separate bowl and add your strawberry extract and pink food gel. Mix that through, being careful not to over-mix.
Transfer ¼ of the vanilla batter to the pan then add ¼ of the pink batter on top. Add the 2 batters alternatively to each pan, whilst evenly distributing the batter.
You should now have created a marble effect with the alternative batters. Bake the cakes for 1hr or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted or the cake is springy to the touch.

How to make strawberry cake filling

To make the cake filling between the layers, simply spread on your buttercream and layer your sliced strawberries on top.
As the cake cools begin by making the vegan buttercream. By creaming together the vegan butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Then add a few drops of pink dye and strawberry jam. Mix until fully incorporated.

Assembling

Before layering makes sure all the sponges are level. If they're not use a serrated knife of cake leveller to remove any unevenness.
Once levelled spread a spoonful of the buttercream onto the first layer and place the sliced strawberries on top.
Continue this with the next layer. Place the third layer on top of the buttercream filling face down - this will help create a neat iced cake.
With your spatula spread more of the buttercream along the sides of the cake, making sure nothing is left bare, continue to ice moving your way up to the top of the cake.
From here you can decide whether to make a rustic cake or a neat/more professional-looking cake. If you want to opt for the former you will need to do a crumb coat and then a second layer of icing across the whole of the cake.
Then with a cake scraper go around the cake again to smooth the icing out. For a more rustic look, create a few dips and flicks in your buttercream- no need to smooth it out.
Then decorate the strawberry cake with fresh strawberries.
Slice and enjoy!

Non-vegan alternative

If you don't want to make this 3 layer strawberry cake vegan simply substitute the plant-based milk for normal whole milk, the vegan butter for normal block butter at room temperature.

If however, you still wanted to make a strawberry cake without egg that wasn’t vegan or gluten free, simply substitute the Gluten-free plain flour for normal plain flour and flour the non-vegan substitutes above.

FAQs about strawberry cupcakes from scratch

How long do strawberries last on a cake ?

Follow the date on the box of strawberries from the grocery store. Don’t keep the strawberries on your cake longer than the use by date on the box.

If however, you're strawberries are looking a little funky before this date, I’d recommend removing them from the cake, before their use by date.

Can you put strawberries in a cake ?

Yes! Strawberries pureed into a cake adds a beautiful fresh strawberry flavor, however, to get a strong strawberry flavor, you’ll require a lot of strawberries. Additionally, pureed strawberries will affect your ratio of dry to wet ingredients in your cake.

So you’ll need to follow a recipe specifically using pureed strawberries, as the recipe developer would have counter acted the added liquid for the right quantity of flour.

Can you put strawberries between cake layers ?

Yes, that’s exactly what we did for this recipe. Just make sure when doing so that you are using fresh strawberries, and the cake is consumed with 3 days. As the strawberries will begin to go bad.

Storing and freezing

How long does vegan cake last ?

Vegan cake can last up to 4 days in the fridge, but can last up to 2 months in the freezer if stored in an airtight container.

Make sure to tag me @whiskmefree on Instagram and leave a review below if you followed this recipe for how make strawberry cake. To pin this recipe and save it for later, you can use the button on the recipe card or on any of the photos above. Happy baking!

Strawberry and Vanilla Layered Cake

5 from 2 votes

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Gluten Free

Keyword: vegan

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Servings:

Ingredients

480 g Plant-based milk
2 teaspoon Apple cider Vinegar
120 g Olive oil
420 g Gluten Free flour
2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum
1 teaspoon Baking Powder
1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda
400 g Maple sugar
2 teaspoon Strawberry extract
2 teaspoon Pink food gel
2 teaspoon Vanilla

Strawberry Buttercream

150 g Vegan butter
325 g Icing Sugar
2 tablespoon Strawberry jam
Pink Food Gel

Metric - US Customary

Instructions

Begin by making your 'buttermilk' by combining your plant-based milk and vinegar together. Set aside for 5mins while you mix together the dry ingredients.
480 g Plant-based milk, 2 teaspoon Apple cider Vinegar
Combine all the dry ingredients together into a separate bowl.
420 g Gluten Free flour, 2 teaspoon Xanthan Gum, 1 teaspoon Baking Powder, 1 teaspoon Bicarbonate of soda, 400 g Maple sugar
Then add the vanilla and oil into the 'buttermilk' mixture.
120 g Olive oil, 2 teaspoon Vanilla
Once combined, pour the 'buttermilk' mixture into the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
Transfer ½ the batter into a separate bowl and add your strawberry extract and pink food gel. Mix that through, being careful not to over mix.
2 teaspoon Strawberry extract, 2 teaspoon Pink food gel
Transfer ¼ of the vanilla batter to the pan then add ¼ of the pink batter on top. Add the 2 batters alternatively to each pan, whilst evenly distributing the batter.
You should now have created a marble effect with the alternative batters. Bake the cakes for 1hr or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted or the cake is springy to the touch.