Hiya my cats! And Happy Sunday! Last week was mental and I had an extremely busy weekend doing some more cleaning and tidying up, meaning that I wasn’t really able to sit down at my laptop for long. And while I had this week off, it was my birthday and my parents came to visit so I have been focused on spending time with them. Because between me being vegan and my mom being allergic to many various ingredients, I decided that I would make the birthday cake, or to be fair, cakes: I made a variation of the Pear Galette with Rooibos Glaze and also a Victoria Sponge by LazyCatKitchen. They both were a success with my parents! To make it more special, I used a homemade strawberry jam that a colleague made for my partner and me – delicious! So here is the recipe for this cake.

INGREDIENTS

CAKE

• 450 ml / 1½ cups + 2 tbsp soy milk*
• 30 ml / 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 150 g / ¾ cup softened coconut oil or vegan butter block
• 300 g / 1½ cups sugar (coconut sugar for GF version)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp lemon extract (optional)
• 430 g / 3½ cups AP flour or GF flour mix
• 30 g / ¼ cup cornstarch/cornflour
• ½ tsp xanthan gum (only if using GF flour)
• 2½ tsp baking powder
• ¾ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt

FILLING / TOPPING

• 250 ml / 1 cup vegan whipped cream (like Oatly)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract or paste
• 2 tbsp icing sugar, to taste
• 160 g / ½ cup quality strawberry jam
• 500 g / 1 lb fresh strawberries

METHOD

1. Heat up the oven to 180° C / 355° F (without the fan function) and grease and line two 20 cm / 8″ round cake tins.
2. Combine soy milk and lemon juice in a small pot and warm up until just barely lukewarm. It will curdle – that’s what it is meant to do.
3. Beat softened coconut oil (or vegan butter) and sugar with an electric mixer until nice and fluffy.
4. Once whipped, fold in about a third of the lemon soy milk mixture and both extracts.
5. Place a sieve over the bowl and sift in approximately a third of flour and all of the cornflour. Gently fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients by making small circles in the middle of the bowl with your spoon to minimise lumps. It will take a while to incorporate well, don’t rush this step. Alternating dry and wet ingredients like this prevents the batter from being too runny to begin with and therefore lumps from forming.
6. Next, fold in another third of soy milk, followed by another portion of sifted flour.
7. Finally, add the last of the soy milk followed by both raising agents, salt and xanthan gum (for GF version) with your third batch of flour. Fold really gently so that you don’t knock too much air out of the batter.
8. Divide the mixture between two tins and bake until a toothpick comes out clean of cake crumbs, about 30-32 minutes.
9. Allow the cakes to cool down completely before removing from the tins and icing.

FILLING / TOPPING

1. Whip chilled vegan whipping cream in a clean bowl according to the instructions on the packet. Add vanilla and a bit of sugar to taste.

ASSEMBLY

1. Spread jam and cream on top of the first sponge cake, decorate with a few fresh strawberry halves.
2. Top with the second sponge cake, decorate the top with more cream and strawberries or if you are after a more traditional look, simply sprinkle the top with some icing sugar.

I hope you’ll enjoy this cake, whether for your birthday or for another Sunday 🙂

Love,

TVCL xx