Looking at my most recent posts, you would think this is turning into a full on cake appreciation blog, but my mum's birthday was a couple of days ago and in keeping with tradition, I baked her a scrumptious vegan cake to celebrate. After posting the picture/video on Instagram, a lot of interest rolled in for the recipe. Here we are! This cake is soft, succulent and fresh, with bursts of juicy blueberry in every mouthful. I hope you enjoy trying it out and I would love to hear what you think.
It's hard to believe it's been a whole year since I made the vegan orange cake for my mum's birthday - definitely check it out if you haven't because it is fabulous! This year, I kept the fruit theme going as my mum's a big fan of fresh fruit in cakes. The blueberries really take centre stage in this, with the strawberries acting as a featured guest.
The recipe below is enough to make one layer of the cake, but if you are making a two layer celebration cake like I did, you can go ahead and double the ingredients and sandwich the cake with your buttercream of choice, such as the strawberry one below or chocolate buttercream or vanilla buttercream.
You'll see below that the measurements are in cups and spoons. I recommend this set of stainless steel measuring cups and spoons. There are also online tools that allow you to convert from cups to grams if necessary.
On a side note, I've been considering setting up a vegan cake delivery business here in London. A side project to indulge my love of baking while providing people with tasty treats. If anything comes of it, you'll hear about it. In the meantime, if you know for sure that it's something you'd be into, feel free to message me on Instagram to express your interest.
Where appropriate, I have included links to the exact brands (ingredients and equipment) I used to make this cake. If you need any more product recommendations, just drop me a comment or message.
Ingredients
For one layer of cake
- 2 cups self-raising flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1/3 cup sunflower/vegetable oil
- 1 cup vegan milk (such as almond, oat, soya etc.)
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 1 cup fresh blueberries (approx. 200g)
- 2-3 strawberries (thinly sliced)
For the strawberry buttercream and toppings
- 4 heap tablespoons vegan margarine
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 1 tablespoon strawberry jam
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 4 drops red gel food colouring
- 1 cup chopped cashews
- fresh blueberries and strawberries
Method
1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and caster sugar in a large mixing bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the oil, vegan milk and vanilla together. Pour this into the dry ingredients and use a spatula to gently fold the mixture until a cake batter forms. Do not over whisk or stir too vigorously otherwise you may lose the fluffy cake texture.
4. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of flour over the blueberries (in a bowl) and toss together until the berries are well coated. Gently fold this into the cake batter.
5. Lightly grease a round 20cm cake tin with oil or vegan margarine then line the bottom with a round piece of baking paper. Pour the batter into the tin and use a spatula to smooth out the top. Layer the slices of fresh strawberry over the top. If you are icing the cake later, no need to be too neat. If you are not icing the cake, you may wish to make a pretty pattern with the strawberries.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick stuck in the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack before icing/serving
6. To make the strawberry buttercream, combine the vegan margarine, icing sugar, strawberry jam, vanilla bean paste and red food colouring. Whisk until you have a fluffy buttercream.
7. Decorate the cooled cake with the strawberry buttercream and garnish with chopped cashews and more fresh berries. As mentioned earlier, you can turn this into a 2 layer sandwich cake by doubling the ingredient quantities.
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| I made mine a two-layer cake and put the buttercream between the layers and around the side. I then pressed the chopped cashews into the buttercream all the way around and sprinkled some more on top. |
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