A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by Sherry Lucas, the food writer for our local newspaper, who asked if I’d like to be the subject of an article. Though naturally camera-shy (as well as people-shy), I agreed, and when she suggested that I cook a dish using something seasonal, my very first thought was strawberries. Besides being pretty (I hoped the photographer would be smitten by them and forget to take any photos of me), juicy strawberries from Florida have been available in our grocery stores for the past few weeks, and we’ve been able to get Louisiana strawberries since early February from “The Strawberry Man,” a farmer from my hometown in Louisiana who drives them up every day to sell from the back of his truck.
So I set to work on making the best, low-fat strawberry dessert I could, baking 4 different versions of the same recipe…and gaining 5 pounds in the process! All the experimenting paid off; the final version was light and tender. But after all that cooking, testing, and tasting, the newspaper chose to use the other recipe I made–a quinoa and asparagus dish–in the article.
Never fear–the newspaper’s loss is your gain. I’ve got the recipe, as well as these photos of the cake, right here! Be warned that though fat-free, it’s no health food because of the sugar and white flour. But sometimes during strawberry season, we just have to indulge ourselves a little.
Strawberry Snack Cake
Ingredients
- 1 3/4 cups cake flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup soy yogurt (see note)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup vanilla soymilk
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 pound strawberries, stemmed and sliced
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup water
Instructions
- Mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add soy yogurt, vanilla, water, soymilk, and lemon juice. Mix until just blended–do not overmix. Pour into oiled 8×8-inch pan and bake at 350 F until a toothpick comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Remove and allow to cool completely.
- Combine the strawberries, cornstarch, sugar, and water in a saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat until sauce boils and thickens. Spread over top of cake. May be served warm or chilled.
Notes
For a more tender cake, use 1/4 cup soy yogurt and 1 1/2 tablespoons canola oil; add 20 calories and 2.5 grams of fat per serving.
Total time (duration): 45
Number of servings (yield): 9
Makes 9 servings. Per serving: 219 Calories (kcal); 1g Total Fat; (2% calories from fat); 3g Protein; 51g Carbohydrate; 0mg Cholesterol; 280mg Sodium; 1g Fiber. Weight Watchers: 4 Points.
Copyright © Susan Voisin 2009. All rights reserved. Please do not repost recipes or photos to other websites.
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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
This is really good! I had to sub a few things because my pantry is lacking at the moment but it turned out delicious anyway! I used wheat and all purp flour instead of cake flour, applesauce for the yogurt, and blueberries instead of the strawberries.
I think I'm going to use your sauce creation over waffles next time I make them. Thanks for yet another great recipe!
Hi Susan, thanks for the recipe, and also for the link love on Facebook!
I cannot wait to try this one out. I applied the same method to blueberry with outstanding results!
Is cake flour known as All purpose flour.Please explain.
Thanks,
Cake flour has less protein and gluten than all-purpose flour, giving baked goods a lighter texture. In the US, it can be bought in grocery stores–look for boxes rather than bags. If you can’t find cake flour, you can use 3/4 cup of all-purpose mixed with 2 tablespoons of corn starch to substitute for each cup of cake flour.
Hi Susan! This looks delish! Do you think it would be okay to sub the soy yogurt with something like So Delicious’ coconut milk yogurt? And rice milk (or other) instead of soy milk? I’ve developed soy issues and would still like to make this recipe as soon as strawberries make it up to NJ!
Thanks for all your fantastic recipes – you deserve the newspaper accolaes!
Thanks, Christine! Feel free to use non-soy ingredients for soy. They’ll all work.
This was very good! I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of the cake flour and I intended to use some stevia in place of the sugar but I forgot to add either. It was still very good!! Will make again and omit the sugar on purpose this time.
What could I use instead of soy yogurt? I don’t have any here…
You can use apple sauce or you can increase the soy milk by 1/4 cup and leave out the soy yogurt.
Just wanted to say that this is a wonderful website!
Susan, thanks for this wonderful recipe! I had strawberries to use up quickly but not quite enough so I did 1/2 blueberries and it was a huge hit w/my 7 yo daughter (and with me, too!!). Wonderful website…you are awesome!
Made this for my dad’s birthday today and it was a big hit! So moist and delicious!
Only thing I did differently was I made it in a 9×9… the baking time was more around the 20-25 minutes area for me.
Hi Susan, I think u have a fantastic site, love all your dessert recipes. I would like to know if I can make the Strawberry Snack Cake with frozen strawberries & if so do I have to thaw them (in a microwave?) before making the sauce . Please advise. Thanx & keep up the good work.
I would just let them thaw in the fridge overnight before using them. Hope you enjoy!
Susan you should write a book, it would be great! It would be fantastic to have all your recipes together in hardcopy!
Yum! I am sooo looking forward to strawberry season… it’s still pretty chilly up here in NH!
Thanks for this recipe – it was delicious! My son is on a very restricted diet to try to pin down his allergies, so we subbed GF baking mix for the pastry flour. The cake was dense, but tasty and the sweet/sour strawberry sauce was a good complement. It looked and tasted like cake, which was great! It’s a whole lot more than I can say for some “alternative” recipes I have tried lately.
mmm.. delish! Just made this today – perfect for a lovely spring day!
Beautiful!!
hi Susan I tried it and did not like it at all, the cake was not even similar to a normal one
This was fabulous! I’ve been dabbling a bit with vegan baking and I’ve never made a cake that was edible. This was more than edible and I could have easily eaten the entire cake myself! Everyone loved it.
I bought a ton of organic strawberries on sale this past Friday and wanted a way to use some of them, so I made this – it’s delightful! Even my husband, who is not big on sweets, liked it. His only complaint was that it tasted a little “healthy” but that was my fault for using 3/4 cup of white whole wheat flour… I just couldn’t stand the thought of all that white flour!
I think the cake is perfect, though I think next time I will decrease the sugar in the strawberry sauce since it was a tad sweet for me (maybe my strawberries were just that sweet?). I used vanilla almond milk and some homemade vegan yogurt too. Thanks for the cornstarch tip to sub for cake flour!
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