Vegan Chocolate Strawberry Cake

This vegan chocolate strawberry cake is soft, fluffy, moist, creamy, sweet, and packed with plenty of strawberry and chocolate flavour. This cake is also very easy to make, in a sheet pan, and with a few simple ingredients.

No-one will be able to tell that this is a vegan cake, even-though it’s made without eggs and without dairy. It’s a fulfilling, flavourful, and yet light cake that everyone will love.

What is this chocolate strawberry cake?

Our vegan chocolate strawberry cake is made with two thin, soft, and moist layers of vegan chocolate sponge cake. It’s kind of a double sheet chocolate and strawberry cake, made without eggs, without milk and without butter.

We make the vegan cream filling by combining vegan whipped cream and homemade vegan condensed milk. Don’t worry, both are super easy to make at home in a few minutes.

We decided to use strawberries because they are in season and because they go great with chocolate. But other delicious fruits suitable for this cake are mango, peach or pears. We marinate the strawberries with sugar first, so that they’ll release a sweet strawberry juice that we then use to moisten the sponge.

Ingredients & Substitutions

For the chocolate sponge

• Plant milk: we use almond milk. You can replace it with any other plant milk.
• Sugar: we use granulated sugar. You may replace that with another sugar, including coconut sugar. The texture and taste will change slightly.
• Vegetable oil: we use sunflower oil. You can replace it with any other vegetable oil, best if refined, so you won’t taste the flavour of the oil.
• Flour: we use all-purpose flour. You can replace it with whole-grain, bread, and spelt flour. To make this cake gluten free, use a ready-made flour mix suitable for cakes.
• Cornstarch: we use this as an egg replacement to bind the sponge cake together and be able to cut it easily.
• Cacao powder: we use unsweetened, dutch processed, cacao powder. You can replace it with any other cacao or cocoa powder.
• Baking powder: we use a small amount to help the cake rise a little. Don’t add too much or your sponge cake will crumble.

For the cream filling

• Almond milk: we recommend using almond milk if you can to give the best flavour. But you can also use any other plant milk, and add a tsp of vanilla extract.
• Sugar: we use granulated sugar. You can use any other sweetener of your choice.
• Cornstarch: we use this as a thickening agent to make the condensed milk.
• Vegan whipping cream: we use a ready-made vegan whipping cream. Here’s a list of vegan friendly brands. If you can’t find that, you can replace it with the same amount of full fat coconut milk or coconut cream – just the solid part, not the watery part – whipped together with 2 tbsps of icing sugar.

• Strawberries: we use fresh strawberries. You can replace them with mango, peach, nectarines, or pears.

Equipment

• Electric mixer/beater: we use it to mix the cake batter and to make the vegan whipping cream.
• Baking tray, baking sheet, or sheet pan: we use a 11 x 17 inches (30cm x 40cm) baking tray.

What size pan do I need?

We bake this cake in a half sheet pan, which is basically a baking tray that in the US is generally 11 x 17 inches long, while in Europe is generally 40 x 30 cm.

If you want to change the size of the pan you need to do this simple calculation:

1. Multiply the length by the width of your sheet pan (to find the area).
   Example: 13 x 18 = 234
   
2. Divide the result by 187. That is the area of the sheet pan that I used (11 x 17).
   Example: 234 : 187 = 1.25
   
3. Multiply all ingredients by 1.25. Example: 200g of flour x 1.25 = 250g of flour.

Mistakes I made

• Too much baking powder: when I added 1 tbsp of baking powder the cake was too crumbly and the sheets were not able to support the cake. With 1/2 tbsp the sponge is firmer and more suitable for this recipe.
  
• Did not stir the condensed milk: I tried letting the condensed milk cool down on its own, without me stirring it. It’s fine if you do so, however, the condensed milk will be a lot clumpier and it will be harder to mix with the whipped cream if you don’t cool it down while stirring it.

Tips

• Distribute the cake batter evenly: try to do this to avoid an uneven sheet of cake. I do that with a spatula, but a spoon works too.
• Cool down the condensed milk: I do this by filling up the sink with cold water, then I put the pot with the condensed milk in the cold water and I stir for a few minutes, until the condensed milk reaches room temperature. This way you’ll get a smooth, lump-free condensed milk.
• Prepare all the elements before building the cake: it’s going to be a lot easier to build your vegan chocolate strawberry cake if everything is prepared in front of you.

Frequently asked questions

Storage

Store the cake in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. We do not recommend freezing the finished cake. You can freeze the chocolate sponge/sheet for up to three months.

To do that, let the sponge cool down completely, then put it in a freezing bag or freezing container and freeze. To thaw it, put it in the refrigerator for half a day before decorating it.

Variations

• Coffee cake with hazelnut filling
• Chocolate and sour cherry jam cake
• Orange curd cake
• Vanilla cake with custard
• Coconut cake