This is a wonderful mini vegan spring layer cake, full to the brim with fresh strawberries, dark chocolate, vanilla, and almonds. The perfect flavour combination for afternoon coffee or tea.
There is something truly special in fruit cakes, and they will possibly forever be one of my dearest things to make and enjoy. And here, beautiful fresh strawberries pair so well with vanilla and almonds. And dark chocolate, naturally.
Speaking of that, I used a 70% chocolate bar because I know that one is the middle ground when it comes to my trusted taste-testers and myself, but feel free to use an even darker bar if you like. That crunch from the chocolate shavings is simply unexpectedly delightful.
It slices perfectly despite its height, so you can easily get 20 thin slices, more than plenty for a smaller gathering. I emphasise this because we are headed for the warmer part of the year and I believe many of us have been eagerly awaiting outdoor get-togethers.
One thing I do want to point out, though; if you are using frozen strawberries that you plan on defrosting for this, use more than you believe you need. When testing the recipe, I had to use 150 grams of frozen strawberries to get 120 grams of puree, so do plan accordingly.
The decoration I leave up to you, as always, but I chose as many fresh strawberries as I could add, and some amaretto coffee to go along. Feel free to add some flaked almonds, they would be magical in this combination, as well.
Ingredients
For the fresh strawberry cake layers
120 grams strawberries, fresh or defrosted100 grams plain flour
75 grams light brown sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
35 millilitres neutral oil
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
30 millilitres carbonated water
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
For the vanilla almond cake layers
100 grams plain flour1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
100 grams granulated sugar
30 grams blanched almonds, finely ground
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
30 millilitres neutral oil
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
150 millilitres carbonated water
For the stracciatella filling
350 millilitres soy milk, cold75 grams granulated sugar
50 grams cornflour
150 grams vegan block butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
100 grams dark chocolate (70%)
Preparation
Let the oven preheat to 180°C and line two medium round cake pans (15 cm) with baking parchment, bottom and sides. It does not really matter which cake you make first, because they will both go into the oven at the same time.
If your oven has room for just one cake, bake the other one once the first one is baked, so the baking soda can still work.
Place the strawberries into a blender or a small food processor and let it work until they are completely pureed. Add in the rest of the wet ingredients and blend very well. Separately sift together the dry ingredients into a medium bowl, add in the sugar, and mix it through very well. Pour the fruit puree into the dry ingredients, and stir until just combined.
If you notice that the batter is very thick, add a small splash of water, not more than a tablespoon.
For the vanilla almond cake, sift together all the dry ingredients into a medium bowl, and then add in the sugar and ground almonds. Mix well, add in all of the wet ingredients in no particular order, and gently mix until only combined.
Pour both cake batters into the prepared pans and bake immediately, in a nicely preheated oven, at 180°C, for 18-22 minutes. Make sure you check them with a toothpick, so they do not dry out in the oven. Remove them from the oven and let them cool completely in the pans.
Both of my cakes were done after exactly 20 minutes.
While the cakes are cooling, make the custard buttercream. Pour the soy milk into a heavy saucepan, sift in the cornflour, add the sugar, and whisk very well. Place the pan over medium-high heat and let it slowly come to a boil. Once boiling, start stirring constantly, and cook for about 2-3 minutes, until it resembles a soft custard. Remove from the heat, cover the surface with a piece of cling film or a round of baking parchment, and let it cool down to room temperature, about 45 minutes.
While the custard and the cakes are cooling down, make chocolate shavings from a bar of dark chocolate, and place them into the refrigerator to harden and become brittle. This will come in handy later on.
Once the custard is almost at room temperature, transfer it to a large bowl, and whip with an electric mixer on the highest setting until smooth and very creamy. At this point, it might seem that it lost some of the firmness, but that is fine. Add the softened vegan block butter and vanilla directly into the custard, and proceed to whip on the highest setting until very airy, light, and fully combined. Place the bowl into the refrigerator for about 30-40 minutes.
If you taste it at this point, it will resemble soft ice cream.
While the filling is setting, level the cakes if needed, and slice the strawberry cake into three thin layers, and vanilla cake into four thin layers. This is best done using a cake leveler, because the layers are so very thin.
Once everything is cool to the touch, remove the filling from the refrigerator and add in the chocolate shavings you made earlier. Add them directly to the filling and whip on high one last time. That was, some pieces will remain larger, for added texture.
Place the first vanilla layer on the cake platter and add a portion of the filling. If you want to be precise, 70 grams of filling goes on each layer. Top with a strawberry layer, and add another 70 grams of filling. Continue stacking, alternating cake layers, until all of them are used up. Because the cake is firm, you can use the remaining filling to frost the top and sides.
Place the cake into the refrigerator for at least 8 hours or overnight, and serve in thin slices. Keep in mind that the slices will not be perfect because of the chocolate pieces. Yields 20 servings.
