Strawberry Caramelised Vanilla Cake

A cartoon image, from the shoulders up, of a curly brown haired white woman wearing glasses, a purple top, and gray dungarees. Behind are large stripes in black, gray, white and purple, with faint stars. Jessica
Ingredients:
  • 350g Plain Flour
  • 300g White Caster Sugar
  • 1 ½ tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 360ml Soya Milk
  • 120ml Vegetable Oil
  • 1 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
  • 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
  • 125g Vegetable-Based Baking Block
  • 225g Icing Sugar
  • ¼ tsp Salted Caramel Flavouring
  • 350g Strawberry Jam/Conserve/Preserve
Category: Kitchen

Details

This sandwich cake has the sugar react with the silicone baking pans creating a dark crumb and an almost caramelised taste to it, which I leaned into when making the buttercream by adding salted caramel flavouring.

  • Yield: 1 Large Cake
  • Difficulty: Intermediate
  • Time: Medium

Instructions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the dry ingredients of flour, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt.
  3. In another bowl, mix together the wet ingredients of soya milk, vegetable oil, apple cider vinegar, and vanilla extract.
  4. Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined, do not overmix.
  5. Divide the batter into two and pour equal amounts into the two silicone baking pans and smooth the tops with a spatula.
  6. Bake in the centre of the oven for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  7. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. Despite not greasing the pans, these should come free with minimal sticking by taking great care in removing the cakes from the pans, by slowly tapping the bottoms and wriggling the sides.
  8. After the cakes have fully cooled, begin making the filling. Put the vegetable-based baking block, icing sugar and salted caramel flavouring into a stand mixer and whip together at a high speed, stopping every few seconds to scrape down the sides with a spatula, looking for a smooth consistency. You may also want to add in splashes of soya milk if the buttercream is too stiff.
  9. On the top of one cake, spread half the strawberry jam/conserve/preserve, and then cover with the buttercream. Add the remaining strawberry jam/conserve/preserve to the bottom of the second cake, and then carefully place this cake on top to the first cake to create a sandwich.