This Vegan Strawberry Marble Loaf Cake is a delicious summery dessert that combines classic flavours of vanilla and strawberry in an eye-catching, swirled pattern. This cake’s light and airy texture, along with it’s tasty cheese frosting make it the perfect addition to any dessert table.
Vegan Strawberry Marble Loaf Cake
Who doesn’t love a good ol’ fashioned marble cake? Marble cakes are one of my favourites to make. I love the two toned batter swirled together into a gorgeous pattern. The fun is cutting into the cake and seeing all of the beautiful swirls, no two slices are ever the same. The flavour of this loaf is the perfect balance of being sweet and fruity.
A loaf cake is so quick and easy to make, no layers of fuss when making it. Each slice is elegant, pretty and best of all DELICIOUS! You could leave off the cream cheese frosting on top but it adds more flavour and helps to keep the cake fresh and moist.
Make sure to check out my Vegan Lemon Loaf and Vegan Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake.
Why you’ll love this recipe:
As soon as you try the cake, you will know why I personally love it so much, but to help persuade you, i’ve listed a few of my top reasons to make this cake below.
- It’s vegan and cruelty-free : No animals ingredients required to make the BEST marble cake.
- It’s super easy to make : From simple ingredients to a easy method, this cake is a breeze to make.
- Fun to make : Swirling the two tone cake batters together is super fun, great for kids to get involved with.
- Simple to decorate : You can leave the frosting off, or add it on-top of the cake along with some coconut and fresh strawberries for decoration. It’s fresh, fruity and delicious!
- Moist and perfect texture : The loaf is perfectly moist, soft and buttery. It melts in your mouth, so good!
- Fruity strawberry flavour : The fruity strawberry flavour shines throughout every single bite of this delightful cake. Perfect flavour for summer!
How to create swirls in a vegan loaf cake
There are a few helpful tips and tricks in order to create gorgeous swirls in your cake batter. I have listed a few notes below:
- The check board: A method which I used for this cake. You want to spoon the batter at the bottom of the lined tin by alternating between the white and pink batter. Repeat until you’ve used up all of the batter and the tin is filled.
- Don’t swirl too much: Make sure to use something small and thin like a cocktail stick or skewer to create swirls in the batter. If you swirl the batter around too much you can over mix, resulting in a cake without a pretty pattern inside. Simple swirl the batters together a few times, then stop. This will create defined swirls.
- Zig-zag Pattern: The best way to create the swirls is to use the skewer or stick in a zig-zag pattern vertically, starting at the top edge of the tin, working your way down, then back up again. Watch the video tutorial here for example. If you desire an even more defined swirl, you can also zig-zag horizontally in the tin. Again, its essential you don’t over mix!
- Pink colour : To get the vibrant and defined pink swirls, you want to use a pink food gel. If you wanted to make the cake with a natural colour, you could use something like beet powder but it wont be as vibrant and ‘pink’ as the gel. For the frosting, use gel or freeze dried strawberry powder!
Ingredients for a Vegan Strawberry Marble Loaf Cake:
- Plain flour / all purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Cornflour / cornstarch
- Caster sugar
- Dairy-free butter (I like to use a vegan block butter, Naturli Vegan Block or Flora Plant Butter for example).
- Dairy-free vanilla or strawberry yogurt
- Apple cider vinegar
- Dairy-free milk
- Strawberry flavouring
- Freeze dried strawberry powder or pink food gel
- Dairy-free cream cheese (My favourite vegan cream cheese is Violife)
- Icing sugar
- Desiccated coconut
- Fresh strawberries
How to make a marble loaf cake
I love how simple yet effective this loaf cake is. It produces the most beautiful loaf with swirls of pink and white sponge, topped with a cream cheese frosting which can be whipped up in minutes!
- Marble loaf
Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl (minus the pink food gel / freeze dried strawberry powder). Divine the batter in half, add the pink gel or powder to one and leave the other plain white. Spoon or pipe into the lined tin. Place the butter on-top of the batter in a line then bake.
- Frosting
Whip up all the ingredients in a stand mixer with balloon whisk attachment until very light and fluffy. Spread over the top of the cooled down sponge (make sure it is cool, as if you apply to hot or even slightly warm cake, it will melt off!).
- Decorate
Top the cake with a sprinkle of desiccated coconut and fresh slices of strawberry. Slice and enjoy!
If you make, and love this recipe, please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating below. Thank you & happy baking! Make sure to tag me in your photos on Instagram and Facebook! And if you want to pin this recipe for later, you can use the button on the recipe card, above or below this post, or on any of the photos. Happy baking all!
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Vegan Strawberry Marble Loaf Cake
- Total Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
A pink and white strawberry loaf cake is topped with a delicious strawberry cream cheese frosting with fresh strawberries. Vegan, no-egg, no-dairy and easy to make!
Ingredients
Ingredients for the loaf cake
- 250g of plain flour
- 1 + 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tablespoons of cornflour / cornstarch
- 300g of caster sugar
- 150g of dairy-free butter (melted)
- 140g of dairy-free vanilla or strawberry yogurt
- 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
- 150ml of dairy-free milk
- 1 teaspoon of strawberry flavouring
- Pink food gel or freeze dried strawberry powder
Ingredients for the frosting
- 50g of dairy-free block butter (softened)
- 15g of dairy-free cream cheese
- 125g of icing sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon of strawberry flavouring
- Pink food gel (or freeze dried strawberry powder)
- Dairy-free milk (if needed)
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- Desiccated coconut (decoration)
- Fresh strawberries
Instructions
Method (loaf cake)
- Preheat oven to 160°C fan and line a loaf tin with grease proof paper or a loaf liner. Set aside.
- From a block of vegan butter, cut a small strip of butter, measuring the length of the tin and place on some grease proof paper. This will be placed on top of the batter before baking. This will help give the loaf the classic ‘crack’ down the middle of the cake.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, cornstarch / cornflour and sugar until combined.
- Add in the melted dairy-free butter, yogurt, vinegar, milk and strawberry flavouring. Whisk to combine and until smooth.
- Equally divide the mixture into two separate bowls. Leave half of the mixture plain white and add a small drop of pink food gel or some freeze dried strawberry powder to the other, stir to combine and turn the batter pink.
- Alternatively spoon the different coloured batters into the tin (watch the video tutorial here) until all of the batter is in the tin.
- Use a skewer or tooth pick to create swirls in the batter but don’t over-mix.
- Lay the butter strip to the top middle of the loaf (don’t press in!), simply lay it on top. This will help create the ‘crack’ down the middle of the cake when baked.
- Place the loaf in the middle of the oven and bake for 60 minutes. Check it at around 50 minutes just to make sure the top isn’t burning, then allow it bake for the remaining time. You’ll know its ready when a toothpick or skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Once baked, remove the loaf from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Allow the loaf to cool down fully in the tin. Once cooled to room temperature, use the sides of the grease proof paper or paper loaf liner lift out the loaf and place on a serving plate.
Method (frosting)
- In a large mixing bowl, add in the dairy-free butter and cream cheese, whip until creamy. I use a stand mixer with a balloon whisk attachment, a hand mixer will work great too.
- Sift in the icing sugar, strawberry flavouring and pink food gel / strawberry powder. Whip on high speed for around 5 minutes to incorporate it. Add in a teaspoon of dairy-free milk at a time until it reaches a smooth and creamy consistency. If it’s too thick, add in more chunks of butter. You want it to be smooth.
- Spoon the frosting to the top of the cooled down cake and spread out with either the back of a spoon or off set spatula.
- Finish the loaf with a sprinkle of desiccated coconut and fresh strawberry slices. Serve and enjoy!
Notes
To store: Store the cake in a sealed / air tight container in the fridge and allow to come to room temperature before serving. Best enjoyed within 2-3 days of making
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Category: Cakes and layer cakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Hi, I made your strawberry loaf cake but my swirls didn’t work. I layered correctly, didn’t swirl too much and used the naturali block butter. I can hardly see the pink inside and is overall too wet inside and falling apart to cut. Do you have any advice? Thank you
I bake for my colleagues every week and this cake disappeared in no time! Everyone loved it
Author
Hello Sarah,
Omg i love that so much! Thank youuuu!! Over the moon you all loved it 😀 xxx