Our vegan vanilla cake is easy to make, with simple ingredients, and perfect for birthdays, holidays, and even for Valentine's Day. It's soft, moist, light, sweet, and full of vanilla flavour. It's eggs-free, milk-free, and without butter, yet no-one will be able to tell. This cake will make you fall in love!
Preheat the oven to 360˚F (180˚C). Brush a 7 inch (18 cm) round cake tin with a few drops of oil, then dust the tin with flour.
In a large bowl add sunflower seed oil, sugar, plant-milk, grated lemon zest, vanilla extract and whisk well together.
Sift flour and baking powder into the bowl with the liquids. Then with a whisk or spatula whisk all the ingredients together. Try to break some of the lumps.
Pour the cake batter into the cake tin and bake for around 55 min at 360˚F (180˚C). Before taking it out of the oven, check with a toothpick if the cake is fully baked. Do not open the oven door for the first 30 minutes of baking. Let cool down completely before cutting it open. Cut it in 3 layers with a serrated knife.
For the vegan pastry cream
In a pot off the heat, add all the ingredients for the vegan pastry cream and whisk them together till all the lumps are gone. Bring on to medium heat and whisk the liquid until it turns into a thick pastry cream. Take off the heat, set aside to cool down for 10 minutes, but keep whisking occasionally to prevent the pastry cream from drying out.
For the syrup
In a pot, add water, sugar and vanilla flavouring. Bring to a gentle boil and whisk until the sugar has melted. Let cook for another 2 minutes, then set aside to cool down.
For the whipped cream
For best results, we recommend purchasing a plant-based whipping cream. If you can't find it, then whip together 2 cans of very cold full fat coconut cream with ¼ cup of icing sugar. Use only the solid part of the coconut milk.
Build the cake
On a cake stand, put the base layer of the sponge cake. Brush with ⅓ of the syrup. Then cover with ½ of the pastry cream. Spread the pastry cream across the sponge cake, then add some pieces of strawberries.
Top with the middle layer of sponge cake. Brush it with ½ of the remaining syrup. Then cover with the remaining ½ of the pastry cream. Spread the pastry cream across the sponge cake, then add some pieces of strawberries.
Add the top layer of the sponge cake - but upside down. Brush withthe leftover syrup.With the help of a spatula, cover the whole cake in whipped cream and decorate with some strawberries on top. We like to keep the strawberries whole.To cut a perfect slice, let the cake cool in the freezer for 30 minutes or in the refrigerator for 1 hour and use a wet sharp knife.
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Notes
MEASUREMENTSWe recommend using the metric system for this recipe.