Berry Yummy: Vegan Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake

My Peruvian princess, Kirsten, has decided to relocate to warmer climates.  Sadly, she will be moving this week, making last weekend our final hurrah. We had a blast celebrating Tracy’s birthday and I wanted to commemorate this occasion with a cake as well.  I knew she’d appreciate it.  Originally, I was simply going to bake another chocolate cake since the last one was so ridiculously delicious.  But when do I ever keep things simple?  Plus, it’s important that I try out new recipes to build my repertoire.

Since I had chocolate frosting left over from the last cake in the freezer, I needed to utilize it.  Lately, I’ve been experimenting with fruit flavored cake recipes so, I thought, why not make a Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake?  It should be as easy as adding pureed strawberries, right?  Wrong.  My first trial produced a very moist cake, but barely any strawberry flavor.  And, after baking, the beautiful pink batter turned into a ho-hum beige crumb.  I needed to figure out how to bulk up the strawberry flavor and keep the cake pink.

The easiest fix for the flavor would be to add strawberry extract.  I visited four supermarkets in search of the extract, but could only find raspberry, lemon, and cherry.  My next idea was to add strawberry syrup, like the melon flavor I used for the Green Tea Cake.  Nada.  Again, all I could find were raspberry and citrus flavors.  I should’ve made a raspberry cake instead.  I could’ve added strawberry liqueur, but it doesn’t have that necessary kick of strawberry flavor.  I was at a loss, so I pulled out my iPhone and found Paula Deen’s recipe for strawberry cake.  What was interesting about her recipe was the use of strawberry flavored gelatin.  I remembered seeing a natural, Vegan version of Jell-O at Whole Foods, so I grabbed a couple boxes and returned to my kitchen.  For extra added measure, I added strawberry preserves to replace some of the liquid.

I’m leaving the food coloring optional since some people may prefer a more natural cake.  The small amount of food coloring won’t change the flavor.  Some recipes call for as much as 3 tablespoons for a two layer cake, which I feel is too much.  Just a slight tinge of pink is fine by me.  No need for it to look like a red velvet cake.  I baked the cake, frosted it with the silky chocolate frosting, et voilà, a new recipe was born.  To keep the theme going, I dipped some fresh strawberries in melted dark chocolate and used them as garnish.  What resulted was a “chocolate covered strawberry cake with chocolate covered strawberries.”  Try saying that ten times fast. 

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Cake 

Dry Ingredients:

3 cups Unbleached Pastry Flour

2 tbs Corn Starch
2 tsp Baking Soda
2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Sea Salt

1 pkg (3 oz) Strawberry Jel Dessert

Wet Ingredients:

1/2 cup Soy Milk + 2 tsp Raw Apple Cider Vinegar

3 tsp Ener-G Egg Replacer + 4 tbs Water
2/3 cup Canola Oil
1 1/2 cup Sugar
2 cups Strawberries (fresh or frozen)
1/2 cup Strawberry Preserves
2 tsp Vanilla Extract 
1 tsp Red Food Coloring (optional) 

Preheat oven to 320ºF.  In a food processor, blend strawberries and preserves.  Push strawberry mixture through a fine mesh strainer to get rid of most of the seeds, reserve.  Add vinegar to 1/2 cup soy milk, reserve.  Stir egg replacer and 4 tbs water, reserve.  Sift together dry ingredients into a medium sized bowl.

Pour oil and sugar into a large bowl and beat with a wire whisk until well incorporated.  Whisk in egg replacer, strawberry mixture, vanilla and food coloring if using.  Fold in dry ingredients.  Lastly, fold in soy milk and vinegar mixture.  Pour into two 9-inch cake pans and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Allow cakes to cool. 

Dark Chocolate Frosting 
(I ran out of extra firm silken tofu, so I adjusted the recipe for the firm kind I already had stocked in my pantry.  This luscious version is much easier to spread than the previous recipe.  It’s a winner.  The cake was rather large.  I recommend doubling the recipe.) 

1 box Firm Silken Tofu
8 oz. Vegan Chocolate Chips, melted in double boiler
1/4 cup Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Extract 

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth.  Chill in the refrigerator until thickened to desired spreading consistency (around 45-60 minutes). 

Strawberry Gelée

3/4 cup Water
2 tbs Sugar
1/2 bar Agar-Agar
1/4 cup Strawberry Preserves, push through fine-mesh strainer
1 tbs Soy Milk Creamer
3-5 drops Red Food Coloring (optional) 

Pass preserves through a fine mesh strainer into a small bowl.  Stir in coloring, if using, and reserve.  In a small saucepan, soak Agar-Agar in water to soften.  Stir over low heat to completely dissolve Agar-Agar.  Add sugar and stir to dissolve.  Remove from heat and add to preserves.  Add soy milk creamer.  Stir to combine and let sit at room temperature until thickened to desired consistency for spreading on top of cake (3-5 minutes).