A delicious vegan strawberry cake that is gluten-free, whole foods plant-based, and, also sugar-free. Sweetened with dates and stevia. This is perfect for kids also if you don´t want them to eat sugar.
How is a traditional Swedish strawberry cake made?
Jordgubbstårta is a fluffy layer cake made of whipped cream, strawberries, and vanilla custard. Cake layers are made of whipped eggs and sugar with wheat flour. The cake is filled with vanilla custard and strawberries or strawberry jam. It is decorated with cream and fresh strawberries.
Often this type of cake is made in the Midsummer. Very traditional at other festivities also and made especially in the strawberry season during summertime. The same type of strawberry cake is made in Finland also. For summer weddings, christenings, graduation parties, and other family gatherings.
It is easy to make a vegan version of this cake by replacing the cream with soy or oat cream and making the cake layers vegan.
How to make a plant-based, healthier, sugar-free strawberry cake?
I always want to come up with ways to make desserts healthier. This vegan strawberry cake is the ultimate healthy version with real ingredients and no preservatives.
The cake base is a bit denser than a traditional sponge cake. This has no whipped eggs, so it is not as airy. Baking powder and apple cider vinegar makes this a bit fluffy and gets it to rise a bit in the oven. It is good to moisten the layers when making the cake so it is not left dry.
This cake is sweetened with dates and stevia. Dates are the healthiest sweetening option for plant-based desserts. Date paste is easy to make as a sugar substitute, and it lasts in the fridge if you get some leftover.
The perfect plant-based icing for cake decoration
I found that it is hard to make healthy icing for cakes. Usually, icing is made of margarine and icing sugar. What a calorie bomb! Since we started to eat plant-based, I have tried to make healthy choices for all unhealthy stuff, and this cashew icing is the closest I get to a perfect icing consistency that you can use in a piping bag or spread with a knife. This is whole foods as well. Packed with nutrition and healthy fats and fiber
Cashews contain calcium, iron, iodine, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, selenium, zinc and, vitamin K. This is a much more healthy cake topping than butter and icing sugar.
How to make the vegan strawberry cake
STEP 1, Make the base
Start by soaking the cashews for the filling. Pour boiling water on top of the cashews and let them rest for at least 15 minutes.
Turn the oven at 175 C, 350 F. You need 2 small 6-inch cake pans. If you only have one, then make the cake base in two batches. This will take double the bake time for the recipe.
If you have two same-size small cake pans, then make the whole amount of dough at once.
Put parchment paper into the bottom of the cake pan.
Make the date paste: Pit your soft dates and make them into a smooth paste in a food processor with water.
Mix the dry ingredients.
Mix the wet ingredients: Mix the coconut milk with the apple cider vinegar, then add the date paste. If you want, you can add additional flavoring:
- bitter almond
- vanilla drops
- lemon
- punch
- spices like cardamom or cinnamon.
Mix all ingredients together.
Bake for 25 minutes in 350 F, 175 C.
Let cool down, cut out the top, and cut the bases into 2 layers.
STEP 2. Make the fillings
Stir the starch in a small amount of cold water.
Mix in a saucepan the cornstarch-water, stevia, and fruit puree. Bring all the ingredients to a boil until the mixture thickens, constantly stirring with a whisk. Cool before filling the cake.
Make the cashew cream. Rinse the cashews. Put the soaked cashews in a food processor with some coconut milk and mix to a smooth, creamy, even paste. Make sure it has no bits left, especially if you want to use a piping bag.
STEP 3. Assemble the cake
Put the cashew cream in a piping bag. Choose a nozzle you want to use, don´t use a too small or decorative one since the cashew icing is quite thick.
Moisten the layers with some plant milk.
Put cashew icing around the edges and fill the middle with filling.
Don´t moisten the top layer, otherwise, the cashew icing won´t stick to it.
STEP 4. Decorate the cake
Decorate with cashew icing. Use remaining cashew cream on the cake sides. You can use a piping bag to make patterns or finish the walls with a straight finish with a knife.
Decorations from chocolate. You can make pretty decorations from melted dark chocolate. To make a beautiful chocolate border, measure the height of the cake. Cut a piece of parchment paper the same height or an inch higher. Place this piece on top of another larger piece of baking paper. Measure also what length you need for the chocolate rim and make it in two parchment paper pieces
Melt the chocolate, spread the melted chocolate with a spoon or piping bag over the baking paper to the pattern you want. Wait for the chocolate to harden. Once the chocolate has hardened, press it on the cake's edges and carefully peel off the baking paper.
Decorate with berries and flowers. Decorate the top with fresh strawberries. You can also use other berries, fruits, herbs, and edible flowers.
Print
Vegan strawberry cake
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 12 1x
Description
This cake is modified from a traditional Swedish strawberry cream cake to be a healthy cake version.
Ingredients
- 2 cups pitted dates
- 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- ¾ cup coconut milk
- 1 cup potato starch
- 1 cup almond flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ cup plant milk for moistening
Strawberry filling
- 2 tbsp corn starch
- 2 tbsp cold water
- 2 tbsp stevia sweetener
- ¾ cup strawberry puree
- ⅓ cup fresh strawberry slices
Lemon filling
- 2 tbsp corn starch
- ½ cup cold water
- 2 tbsp stevia
- 1 psc lemon
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder as color
Frosting
- 1 ⅓ cup soaked cashews
- ¼ cup coconut cream (the thick part in the jar)
Decoration
- 150 grams dark vegan chocolate
- ½ cup strawberries
- ¼ cup blueberries
Instructions
- Start by soaking the cashews. Put hot / boiling water on top of them and soak them for at least 15 minutes, preferably longer.
Cake base
- Turn the oven on at 350F degrees celsius. ( 175C ) Put parchment paper on the bottom of the cake pans.
- Make the date paste in a food processor by adding the pitted dates and water. Make it into a smooth paste. Scrape down the edges in the middle of processing.
- Mix the coconut milk and apple cider vinegar.
- In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients.
- Combine the plant milk and vinegar mixture with date paste. Add the dry ingredients. Mix evenly.
- Bake for 25 minutes.
FILLINGS
- While the cake is baked in the oven, you can make the fillings. These become thick creamy, so there is quite a lot of corn starch.
- Strawberry filling: Stir the starch in a small amount of cold water. Mix in a saucepan the cornstarch-water, stevia, and fruit puree. Bring all the ingredients to a boil until the mixture thickens, constantly stirring with a whisk. Cool before filling the cake.
- Lemon filling: Grate the lemon zest. Add the lemon juice, zest, turmeric, and stevia to a saucepan. Heat it and mix in the water-cornstarch slurry, bring to a boil while stirring.
Frosting
- Pour out the soaking liquid from the cashew nuts. Put in the food processor the soaked cashews and the thick part of the coconut milk from the jar. Add liquid just enough so you get the mass moving in the machine. You have to scrape the machine walls a couple of times so that all the small pieces of nuts become a silky paste. Add more coconut milk if you need to but the mass should be quite thick.
Filling the cake
- Cut the cake when cooled down; you can use toothpicks to help you get a straight cut line. Cut out the top that is uneven. Then cut the base into two layers. The top is not used for the cake. You can make it into cake pops, for example. One of the base parts is used as the top layer, so you get a flat base.
- Put the cashew cream in a piping bag. Moisten the bases but do not moisten the top layer. Put some cashew cream on the edges of the cake on the layers.
- Fill the layers with strawberry and lemon flavors and fresh sliced strawberries or other fruit if you want to.
- Use remaining cashew cream on the cake sides. You can use a piping bag to make patterns or finish the walls with a straight finish with a knife.
- Pretty decoration also comes from melted dark chocolate. To make a beautiful chocolate basket border, measure the height of the cake. Cut a piece of baking paper the same height or an inch higher. Place this piece on top of another larger piece of baking paper.
- Melt the chocolate, spread the melted chocolate with a spoon or piping bag over the baking paper to the pattern you want. Wait for the chocolate to harden. Once the chocolate has hardened, press it on the cake's edges and carefully peel off the baking paper. Depending on the cake's size, you may need two baking paper strips to cover the entire rim.
Notes
You can use additional spices in the cake base, such as almond or lemon aroma. You can flavor with cardamom or cinnamon also.
You can color the cashew cream with food coloring, beet juice, or turmeric if you want to. Chlorella or spirulina gives green color if you´re going to pipe green leaves.
As filling for the cake, you can use ready-bought lemon curd as well or strawberry jam. You can buy a ready one if you don't feel like baking.
Cashew icing can be replaced with store-bought icing or vegan whipping cream. If you use vegan whipping cream, it does not hold together so well, and vegan cream cheese is a better option if you want to decorate it as in the pictures.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: scandinavian
Keywords: gluten free, plant-based, sugarfree
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