This easy vegan strawberry cake is PACKED with fresh strawberries and so simple to make (no gelatin!)! Layered with a fresh strawberry buttercream, this will quickly become your favorite vegan cake recipe!

The best homemade strawberry cake, vegan or not:

You are just going to love this fresh vegan strawberry cake. It’s full of fresh strawberries, bursting with sweetness, and deliciously light and tender.

I really wanted to make a homemade strawberry cake that was not only vegan (so no gelatin nor JELL-O mix here!), but also simple in ingredients. And the buttercream is made so sweet with strawberry flavor thanks to the freeze dried strawberries! 

Overall, this homemade strawberry cake is a win. It’s full of fresh strawberry flavor, lightly hinted with vanilla, tender, soft, and moist, and just an overall delight to eat.

It’s the perfect way to celebrate late spring, early summer, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, and more. Even birthdays!

Ingredients

Here’s what you’ll need for this vegan cake recipe:

• Flour: I’ve used both all purpose flour and oat flour here. Both work wonderfully, as well as regular cake flour, as well as gluten free 1:1 baking flour. All options work!
• Strawberry reduction: we go over this in the next section, but all you’ll need are strawberries!
• Unsweetened applesauce
• Vegan butter: I do recommend using vegan butter over coconut oil. The flavor is nice with the coconut oil, but you don’t get the same lift and height of the cake as you do with vegan butter. The reason being is that it’s a lot easier to emulsify the sugar into the butter rather than the coconut oil.
• Sugar: I’ve used both coconut sugar and granulated sugar- both will work!
• Vegan buttermilk: a combination of dairy free milk and apple cider vinegar. I’ve also used Forager Project drinkable cashew milk probiotic yogurt- it works JUST like buttermilk! 
• Vanilla: strawberries and vanilla extract just go so well together!

Fresh strawberry reduction sauce

If you’ve read online, then you know that you can’t just add strawberries to a vanilla cake and call it a day. Trust me, I’ve learned by experience!

For this vegan strawberry cake, we’re actually going to be using a strawberry reduction sauce, which is essentially strawberry puree boiled down to a thicker sauce.

Now, I don’t make my strawberry reduction into a thick paste, like many homemade strawberry cake recipes call for. I just reduce the puree to essentially a thicker sauce. In other words, I take about 1 1/2 cups of strawberry puree and only reduce it down to 1 cup, rather than 3/4 of a cup.

This adds a good amount of moisture to the vegan strawberry cake without making it gummy. This is the key to a really strawberry-packed flavorful strawberry cake.

You can actually use either fresh or frozen strawberries as well! Just make sure that you’re reducing the mixture down to 1/2 cup.

How to make a homemade vegan strawberry cake

As I mentioned above, this homemade strawberry cake is just so easy to make. In fact, we don’t even need any fancy equipment!

As with all of my recipes, the full written instructions, along with the measurements, are found down below in the recipe card. However, I wanted to give you a few tips and tricks here!

1. Make your strawberry reduction sauce a few hours or the day before. This allows the strawberry sauce to fully cool before you incorporate it into your cake. Hot strawberry sauce will lead to a gummy texture.
2. The strawberry cake batter: you’ll whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl, but use a large bowl for the main batter. In the large bowl, you’ll simply combine all room temperature wet ingredients together. Room temperature ingredients ensures that little to nothing will go awry in the actual batter. Cold applesauce mixed with a lukewarm melted butter will cause the butter to freeze up, creating a lumpy texture that won’t be a pretty bake. Take some time to bring all ingredients to room temperature. You can use either a stand mixer or a hand mixer with a large bowl- either option will work!
3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet. I try to do only a few mixes here, making sure that all of the dry has been incorporated into the wet. Then divide the batter amongst your pans and bake!
4. Allow the cakes to fully cool before frosting. I’ve been there where I’ve rushed through the cooling process and started frosting the cake. Trust me, it’s better to wait! The cakes should have absolutely NO warmth to them when you go to frost. That’s how you know when to make the vegan strawberry buttercream!

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The strawberry buttercream

If you’ve ever tried to add fresh strawberries to a buttercream, then you know that it has a high potential of splitting. Trust me, I have been there before, and it’s so frustrating, so I feel you!

This is why we’re actually using freeze dried strawberries in lieu of fresh strawberries. If you can’t find freeze dried strawberries, you can use strawberry preserves (NOT strawberry reduction) or a strawberry jam- these both work for making an amazing vegan strawberry buttercream!

But I do advise caution, as too much liquid in your strawberry jam will cause the buttercream to split. Stick with fresh strawberry preserves, if you can!

The other thing to note is sifted powdered sugar. This will give you that really creamy and lush strawberry buttercream that will complement your homemade strawberry cake so beautifully.

I had some extra buttercream, so I decided to pipe the rest on top and top with fresh strawberries!

Final cake tips & tricks

• You can use fresh or frozen strawberries: for the strawberry reduction, you can use eaters fresh or frozen strawberries. Just make sure you’re reducing down to 1 cup!
• Make it a gluten free strawberry cake. As I mentioned above, this can easily be made as a gluten free strawberry cake! I used oat flour with a bit of arrowroot starch, and the texture came out perfectly. More on that in the recipe card!
• Don’t over mix the batter. Over mixing the batter will often times lead to the cake not rising and/or a gummy texture. Mix until there are JUST no more dry streaks.
• Bake as a 6″ cake or an 8″ cake. The cake in the photo is over an 8″ cake that I baked in two layer sand sliced in half. You can also do a three layer 6″ cake or just two massive layered 8″ cakes!
• Measure the strawberry reduction. Don’t eyeball this- make sure you measure the amount of strawberry reduction going into the cake!
• Turn into vegan strawberry cupcakes. If you want to make this vegan strawberry cake as strawberry cupcakes, go right ahead! The current recipe below will yield 24 cupcakes.

I hope you love this vegan strawberry cake as much as I do! It was such a hit with my family, and I just know yours will love it too.

If you make this cake, let me know by leaving a comment down below, as well as a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ so that others may find this recipe!

As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful cakes, so be sure to tag me on Instagram and Pinterest!

Happy cake baking!

More vegan cake recipes you’ll love:

Vegan Lemon Blueberry Cake

Easy Vegan Lemon Raspberry Cake

Vegan Lemon Loaf Cake

Best Vegan Chocolate Cake

Amazing Vegan Chocolate Hazelnut Cake

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If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!

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