This is the easiest vegan strawberry shortcake recipe. It features a soft vanilla cake (not cookies!). , slightly sweet fresh strawberries, and your favorite vegan whipped cream – store-bought or homemade. Easy to assemble, fluffy, and soft, shortbread is guaranteed to be a hit!

Every year, when strawberry season is here, I rush to make these simple vegan strawberry shortcakes. They’re delicious, beautiful, and fun to make.

While the cake in this recipe is made from scratch, the shortbread calls for store-bought vegan whipped cream. This helps keep the assembly process streamlined and low-pressure.

I look forward to summer all year long because it’s prime time for vegan fruit dessert recipes. This shortcake is one of my favorites, and it has won the hearts of many of my friends, too!

What’s strawberry shortcake?

A strawberry shortcake combines strawberries and whipped cream between the shortcake layers.

What is a doll? Good question. This is a chemically fermented sweet baked good. Shortbread is similar to instant bread, but instant bread can be salty, while shortbread is sweet.

There are two ways to make shortbread. One is a biscuit, which can be divided into a top and a bottom. The other is to use real sponge cake.

I like both methods. But I love vegan cake recipes, so it’s no surprise that one of my favorite vegan strawberry shortcake recipes includes vanilla cake.

The perfect cake for vegan strawberry shortcake

The cake I use in this recipe is a simple vanilla thin cake. It’s baked on a baking sheet, not a square or round, so it’s thin and great for stacking.

You can use two-quarter pans or one-and-a-half pans to bake the cake. After baking, you can use cookie cutters to make cakes: about 24 in total. If you don’t have a cookie cutter, you can stack the cake into squares.

It’s good to save the cake crumbs when you cut the strawberry shortcake circle! I do the same thing when I make a layer cake.

Crumbled cake crumbs are a nice treat on top of plant-based yogurt, perhaps with some fresh fruit.

Semi-homemade method

The reason this strawberry shortcake is relatively easy to make is the use of store-bought vegan whipped cream.

Homemade whipped cream is excellent, but recipes become more accessible when you don’t make everything from scratch. Me? I love making vanilla cakes by hand. But the store-bought vegan whipped cream is fantastic, and I’m happy to use it here.

The grocery store has a selection of whipped cream. I love So Delicious CocoWhip, while 365 by Whole Foods also has plant-based toppings.

Of course, if you want to use homemade vegan whipped cream in a recipe, don’t hesitate to do it yourself. My tofu whipped cream and cashew whipped cream are my personal favorites.

How do you make strawberry shortcake

Some strawberry shortcake recipes call for mixing strawberries with lots of sugar. Mixing quartered strawberries with a tablespoon of maple syrup is the perfect way to get a mild sweetness.

If you’re using fresh strawberries in season, you don’t have to do much to make them into a cake!

Can you make a strawberry shortcake with frozen strawberries?

Honest? I don’t recommend using frozen strawberries for this recipe. Because strawberry shortcake is so simple, every ingredient shines.

This is especially true of fruit. You don’t need to add too much sugar to strawberries, partly because the seasonal fresh fruit is so vibrant.

In addition, frozen fruit can become very wet during thawing. Adding frozen fruit to many baked goods is okay, which I do often. I’ve been making blueberry buckles, banana oatmeal grills, and vegan cherry pies with frozen fruit.

But fresh, seasonal strawberries are the way to go for vegan strawberry shortcake. Trust me!

Can strawberry shortcake be made gluten-free?

Absolutely! If you need to avoid gluten in your diet, making gluten-free strawberry shortcake is easy.

I recommend using an equal amount of gluten-free flour mix. My favorite is King Arthur’s one-by-one mixture, especially for cakes and quick bread.

Choose in advance

You can keep the fully assembled strawberry shortcake in the refrigerator for about a day. After that, the whipped cream center makes it a little mushy.

You can bake the cake two days before assembly if you want to make shortbread in advance. Wrap each cake in plastic wrap and leave it at room temperature.

Strawberries, meanwhile, can be prepared the day before assembly and refrigerated until you’re ready to use them.

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Ingredients

4 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour (480 g)

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon of acceptable kosher salt

1 3/4 cups non-dairy milk (415ml)

1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

2 cups cane or coconut sugar (385 g)

2/3 cup avocado oil (160ml)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

For assembly

1 pound strawberries, washed, trimmed, and quartered (455g)

1-2 tablespoons maple syrup (to taste)

2 cups vegan whipped cream of choice (store-bought, or try my silken tofu whipped cream or cashew whipped cream) (480ml)

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two quarter- or half-sized baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl. Mix it all.
2. In a separate mixing bowl, add the non-dairy milk and vinegar. Let them sit for a few minutes. Then, add sugar, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract. Stir the wet ingredients together until they are combined.
3. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Use a spatula to stack everything together. Avoid streaks of flour, but small clumps in the batter are okay. Spread the batter evenly on two baking sheets. Use a back spatula to smooth out the batter and spread it to the edges of each layer. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until the edges of the cake are browned and pale gold, then place on top. Transfer the cakes to a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely (about 2 hours).
4. While the cake is cooling, place the quartered strawberries and maple syrup in a mixing bowl and stir. Cover and let them sit in the fridge for at least an hour.
5. To assemble the cake, use a cookie cutter (about 2.5 inches in diameter) to cut each cake into 12 circles (24 total). Alternatively, you can cut two pieces of paper into squares (you may end up with 12-18 squares, depending on how big you make them). Lay a round or square cake on parchment paper, then top with two large spoonfuls of whipped cream and some (4-5) strawberry chunks. Top with a round or square cake. Service!

Hopefully, this simple vegan dessert will be on your table when the berries are fresh in the summer!