This easy vegan vanilla cake is filled with a delicious homemade strawberry jam and topped with a layer of vegan whipped cream. It's the perfect treat for a summer picnic with your friends and family. They'll love it!
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🎥 Video
This easy vegan vanilla cake with homemade strawberry jam and vegan whipped cream is just amazing. You can make this cake from scratch in less than a couple of hours. The vegan sponge cake recipe that we use does not include aquafaba, but just some basic easy to find ingredients.
And who doesn't love strawberry and vanilla flavour together? Those two are definitely a classic flavour combo that everyone loves. And we do too! That's why we decided to fill the vegan vanilla cake with a generous layer of homemade strawberry jam. It's beautiful, it's yummy, it's a winner!
🍓Ingredients
Flour: all purpose or cake flour for lighter cake. Make sure to sift it before you use it. For gluten-free you can sub with gluten-free flour to a 1:1 ratio. For a healthier cake you can add ⅓ wholewheat flour, but the cake won't be as light.
Sugar: we used unrefined organic cane sugar. You can use just regular granulated sugar or any other type of sugar. Mind that if you use a darker sugar, your cake will have a darker stronger flavour.
Plant Milk: we like to use either organic soy milk or organic almond milk. Make sure they are organic as the non organic version of those milks is not good for your health, nor for the environment.
Vegetable oil: we used refined sunflower oil, but you can use any refined vegetable oil. Refined oils are better for cakes as they don't have any flavour.
Apple cider vinegar and Baking Powder: to help make the cake lighter and fluffier.
Ingredients for vanilla cake 
Ingredients for strawberry jam
Salt and vanilla aroma: to give flavour to the cake. We use a bourbon-vanilla aroma that was truly delicious.
Chia Seeds: are a natural thickener for the jam. Add a couple of tsps of agar agar if you want your jam extra thick.
Agave Syrup: you can sub this with sugar or maple syrup.
Strawberries: our favourite spring berry, but you can do this recipe with blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries too.
Vegan whipping cream: if you can't find this, then you can sub it with regular full-fat coconut milk or with coconut cream. Refrigerate before whipping and just use the solid fat part.
🔪 Equipment
You'll need a 7 inch (18 cm) round cake tin, a bowl, and a whisk. If you make the jam yourself then you'll also need a blender.
📋 Recipe Card
Vegan vanilla cake with strawberry jam recipe
Equipment
- 7 inch (18 cm) round cake tin
- Whisk
- If you make the jam yourself then you'll also need a blender
Ingredients
Sponge Cake Base
- 2 cups all purpose or cake flour (300 grams)
- 1⅓ cups sugar (270 grams)
- 1⅓ cups soy milk (330 ml)
- ½ cup sunflower oil (110 ml)
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar (10 grams)
- 1.5 tsp baking powder (8 grams)
- ½ tsp salt
- 3 tsp vanilla extract (8 grams)
Strawberry Jam
- 2 cups strawberries remove stem and chop in half (600 grams)
- 3 tbsp chia seeds (20 grams)
- ½ cup agave syrup (140 grams)
- 2 tsp agar agar
Topping
- 2 cups vegan whipped cream (300 ml)
- 1 cup strawberries (150 grams)
Instructions
For the vanilla cake
- Preheat the oven to 360˚F (180˚C). Then line a7 inch (18 cm) round cake tins with a round piece of parchment paper.
- Sift the flour into a bowl.
- Add sugar, baking powder and salt and whisk together.
- Add soy milk, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and apple cider vinegar and fold in gently till the ingredients come together. Don't over mix.
- Pour the cake batter into the cake tin and bake for around 60 min at 360˚F (180˚C). To check if cooked, Insert a toothpick into the cake. If it comes out dry the cake is ready. If wet, bake for longer. Let the cake cool completely before cutting it or layering it.Start making the strawberry jam while the cake cooks.
For the strawberry jam
- Remove the stem from the strawberries, cut them in half and place them in a blender.
- Add the chia seeds and the agave syrup.
- Blend for a few seconds.
- Pour the mix into a sauce pan, bring to simmer and cook on low heat for about 15 minutes.
- Let cool down, it will thicken up. If you want the jam thicker we suggest adding 2 tsp of agar agar. Boil the agar agar in the jam for 1 minute while stirring. Let cool down to thicken.
For the whipped cream
- You can either whip up some ready made vegan whipping cream, or whip together a can of very cold full fat coconut cream with ¼ cup of icing sugar.
Build the cake
- When the cake is cool, cut it in half with a serrated knife add the strawberry jam on top of one of the layers.
- Top with the other layer, and cover it completely with the vegan whipped cream. Use a knife or a spatula to spread the whipped cream evenly around the cake.
- Decorate the top of the cake as you like. We use some whole strawberries on top.
Video
Nutritional Values
👨🏻🍳 Top tips
Prep the cake tin first
To make your cake as fluffy as possible, it is important that you pour the cake batter into the cake tins as soon as it's ready, and then straight into the oven without letting it sit.
To get the cake extra light and fluffy use two cake tins. Divide the cake batter between them before baking, and then bake for only 30 minutes. Your cake will be lighter and fluffier this way.
To prep the cake tins, cut a round piece of baking paper and place it at the bottom of the tins, then oil the inner sides of the tin with some vegetable oil.
All purpose flour vs cake flour
We made this cake with all purpose flour and it was delicious. If you want your cake even lighter and fluffier, use cake flour, but make sure to weight it with a scale as it takes up more volume than all purpose. Remember though that cake flour is the most refined and bleached flour on the market, and so not the healthiest option.
Sift the flour for a lighter cake
Try to always sift the flour, once or twice, to obtain the fluffiest airy cake. Sifting removes lumps and incorporates air into the flour, making the cake lighter.
Use refined vegetable oil for neutral taste
The worst thing about vegan cakes is when they taste like olives, canola, or some other plant or seed used to make the oil. To avoid weird aftertaste, use refined oils. Those have no flavour and are perfect for this type of cake.
Use a scale to measure the ingredients
Measuring by volume is not precise enough for this cake. We always recommend using a scale and weight your ingredients in grams, but more so in this case.
Don't open the oven
You should not open the oven door during the first 20 minutes of baking, as this will decrease the temperature in the oven and the cake will deflate, or worse, sink in the centre.
Let cool down before filling and frosting
Your cake needs to have fully cooled down before you cut it otherwise it'll crumble apart. Also, make sure the cake is cooled before you add the jam and the whipped cream, or they'll melt, leaving you with a very ugly result.
Don't undercook the cake
In order to be light and fluffy your cake must be fully cooked. To check if the vegan vanilla cake is ready, pierce it with a toothpick. If the toothpick comes out dry, then the cake is ready.
Add some agar agar for a thicker jam
Depending on the water content of your strawberries, your jam might turn out a bit more liquid than desired and the chia seeds might not be enough to thicken it up.
In this case, add a couple of teaspoons of agar agar to the jam, then bring to boil and cook for just over a minute to activate the agar agar. This should make your jam firmer as it cools down.
📖 Questions & answers
A vegan cake is a baked sponge cake that does not contain eggs, dairy milk, butter, or any other product of animal origin. Instead, all ingredients used are from plants.
Compared to standard non-vegan cakes, vegan cakes are healthier as they do not contain animal based fats or protein such as in eggs, milk and butter. Also, they are free from the hormones and antibiotics that are found in dairy and eggs.
However, vegan cakes like this one are still made with mostly refined ingredients such as white flour, sugar, and oil, and have a high caloric density. So for this reason, vegan cakes should not be considered healthy and should be eaten in moderation. They are, however, definitely good for your soul!
We are not experts in gluten free baking so we would recommend checking a site that is specialised in that. However, a friend of ours made this with all-purpose gluten free flour and it came out perfect.
In traditional cakes, eggs really help with making the cakes fluffy. That's why with vegan cakes it can be harder to obtain the same result. To make a vegan cake fluffy you need to first get the oven evenly hot by turning it on at least 15 min before you bake.
Second, line your cake tin in advance as mentioned above, so that when you are done making the cake batter you can quickly pour it into the cake tin and bake it immediately. If the cake batter sits around, it will lose air and become more dense.
Third, for the lightest cake you need to use cake flour as it is more refined and lighter than all purpose flour. Finally, fold the ingredients together gently. If you whisk them too much, gluten will develop and your cake will be denser.
Vinegar acts as a rising agent when combined with baking powder. Also, it will keep your cake of a lighter colour and will help keep gluten formation at bay, resulting in a lighter consistency.
Yes. This vegan vanilla cake with strawberry jam freezes well. In fact, we recommend putting it in the freezer for 30 min before cutting it as you'll get much sharper slices. You can freeze it for up to a week. Let out of the freezer for about 45 minutes before eating it.
Keep in the refrigerator, ideally covered, for up to a week. But don't worry, it won't last for that long.
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If you have any tips or questions let us know in the comments below!
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