I experimented through several strawberry cake recipes recently and found that a lot of them don't taste as great as they sound. I exhaustively tested recipes using different strawberry purees, freeze dried strawberries and so on. They either were too dense or tasted a little off. Ultimately, I was just overthinking it. On some rare occasions, scratch cake, though usually superior, is not always.
This recipe is so simple that it might be one of the shortest I've ever written. Going along with my previous post about Vegan Italian Meringue, making vegan desserts is an interesting challenge. I think it's very useful to have this trick up your sleeve if you ever need it for a friend or family member that has dietary restrictions.
As it turns out, Duncan Hines Strawberry cake mix (by itself) is "accidentally" vegan which makes it a very convenient choice for strawberry cake and it tastes the best. Prepare it according to the instructions on the box with the exception of using egg replacer (recommended brand to follow) and you will have a perfectly fluffy and delicious strawberry cake. You might be thinking, 'really'? Box mix with egg replacer and that's the whole thing? Yes, I have saved you a lot of time a lot of time and trouble!
Yield 2 6" cake rounds
Ingredients:
Duncan Hines Strawberry Box mix
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon of Ener-G Egg Replacer
1/4 cup of water
Preheat oven to 350. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl with a whisk until thoroughly incorporated. Pour into greased 6" pans and bake for 30 minutes.
*DO NOT open the oven door until at least 30-35 minutes has passed, otherwise cakes will sink in the middle if disturbed before the tops are set. Once they are done, flip them out onto a cooling rack and let cool completely before decorating.