Bringing back the nostalgia with this strawberry shortcake crunch cake
Reminiscent of my favorite ice cream from days gone by!
The Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake ice cream bar was the reason I chased the ice cream man down the street.
Four layers of fluffy cake, fresh strawberry compote and white chocolate mousse
Loaded up with that famous strawberry crunch coating we all love so much!
This cake is going to knock your socks of from the first bite to the last!
The style of cake is just so decadent and impressive with layers upon layers of pure deliciousness!
Once you’ve gathered your base recipes most of which can be prepared in advance it literally takes under an hour to build the final cake!
Just follow along step by step with the video tutorial and the written instructions are also below in the recipe box!
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Notes For Success:
The recipe below suggests using my White Cake Box Cake Hack for a much easier preparation
However if you prefer to make scratch recipes for both cakes I have White Cake & Strawberry Cake
You will just have to make half recipes of each one for 2 layers of white and two layers of strawberry
Cake layers can be made in advance and wrapped airtight & stored in the refrigerator or freezer until ready to assemble the cake.
Strawberry compote can be made up to 1 week in advance and stored in the refrigerator.
White chocolate mousse and whipped cream are made at the time of assembly.
UPDATE: Make your life easier by using buttercream or whipped cream in place of the white chocolate mousse!
Before you begin you will notice I am using two special tools for this cake: stainless steel cake ring and the acetate cake strips.
Building cakes with soft fillings like this are typically molded and set and the cake ring
But you can of course build the cake traditional style with a buttercream ring to hold in all the fillings.
Alternatively you can use a springform pan with the bottom removed for a much cheaper option
You will need 2 cups total of whipped cream to fold into the mousse and approximately 3-4 more cups to ice the cake.
Check out everything you need to know about all the vegan whipped cream options
Strawberry Shortcake Crunch Cake
Ingredients
for the white cake
- 1 WHITE CAKE BOX MIX RECIPE *see notes
- OR
- 1 Recipe Scratch White Cake
For the Strawberry Cake:
- Half of the batter from the above white cake mix or my white cake recipe
- Dehydrated strawberries ground to a powder ½ cup (18g)
For the White Chocolate Mousse: *see notes
- Vegan White Chocolate 1 cup (150g)
- Plant Milk 6 Tablespoons
- Agar ½ teaspoon
- Vegan Whipped Cream 2 cups whipped
For the Strawberry Compote Filling:
- Fresh or Frozen strawberries 3 cups
- Cranberries fresh or frozen 1 cup
- Sugar *optional ½ cup
- **If using fresh berries you may need about ¼ cup of water to help them cook down
For the Garnish/Decor/Crunch
- 15 Golden Sandwich Cookies with the fillings
- Dehydrated Strawberries ½ cup (18g)
Instructions
- First prepare the 4- 7" cake pans with professional bakery pan grease and parchment paper liners.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- Prepare the cake batter (if you prefer to make scratch white cake & strawberry cake recipes follow the instructions on those recipe pages and meet me back when you're done!)
- For the box cake hack: In a large mixing bowl empty the contents of one Duncan Hines White Cake box.
- Add the sugar, flour, baking powder and egg replacer.
- Sift together or using a hand whisk to evenly distribute the contents.
- Add the oil, plant milk, water and applesauce and whisk smooth, using about 50 vigorous strokes
- Divide the batter in half and reserve one half for the strawberry batter then divide the remaining white batter into 2-7" prepared pans
- For the strawberry batter grind the dehydrated strawberries in a food processor or spice grinder to a fine powder, add to the white batter and whisk well until there are no streaks.
- Divide the batter between the remaining 2-7" cake pans then bake all the cake layers together in the preheated 350°F oven for approximately 22 minutes or when they are springy to the touch when you gently press the centers, or with the toothpick test, insert a toothpick and if it comes out clear it is done!
- Cool the cakes in the pans until you can safely touch then without burning yourself then flip them out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Prepare the strawberry compote: in a medium heavy bottom sauce pot combine the chopped strawberries and cranberries together with the sugar and water *if needed.
- Cook over medium heat until the cranberries start to pop and the berries are breaking down. Stir often.
- Turn the heat to low and let it simmer and continue to cook down, the sauce will naturally thicken especially as it cools to cold.
- You can leave it chunky or blend to a puree it is your option *I like it chunky.
- Prepare the garnish for the cake by grinding the golden sandwich cookies in a food processor to medium crumbs, add the dehydrated strawberries and pulse until it is all the size you desire for garnish.
- When you are ready to build the cake prepare your vegan whipping cream- if you are using SILK Brand as I show in the video simply whip it to soft peaks at this time.
- Reserve 2 cups for the mousse and leave the rest in the refrigerator for the icing of the cake later.
- Prepare the white chocolate mousse by melting the vegan white chocolate
- Combine the warm plant milk with the agar powder and then bring to a rolling boil to activate the agar.
- Add this to the melted white chocolate and whisk as fast as possible to prevent setting!
- Next quickly fold in the whipped cream and whisk smooth.
- The mousse will set very fast due to the agar, so be sure to have your other ingredients ready to go since you will have to build the cake fairly quickly to make sure the mousse doesn't set.
- Follow the video tutorial for how to build & ice the cake!
Notes
Cake must be kept refrigerated at all times.
You can freeze the UN-iced cake well wrapped for up to 1 month, ice with whipped cream after thawing in the refrigerator overnight.
Hi Gretchen, I would love to try this recipe but Im not vegan, just dairy free…can I use eggs in this recipe instead of the egg replacer? I checked at my grocery store and the egg replacer is pretty expensive…. Anyway, thanks for all your videos and for creating such wonderful treats!
HI Wendy thank you! Since this recipe (and all my recipes are formulated to work as vegan) I would not suggest to just add eggs in place of the egg replacer. Too many other things had to be adjusted to compensate for the vegan subs so to now go backwards again without changing those other things~ I would hate for you to have an epic fail, ingredients are too expensive to be messing up! So I would suggest to just take my idea here, the cake flavors, mousse, etc…. and find some non vegan cake recipes for white & strawberry that you can use and just make the cake that way.
Thank you Gretchen
Don’t ask a vegan if eggs are ok
Exactly!!!
Made this cake and it was AMAZING!! Best cake I’ve made so far! You’re correct, it does take several steps bit worth it! I love how the cranberries worked so well with strawberries! This cake was huge! I got 9 large slices and froze most. Thank you for your amazing videos and recipes! I appreciate them!
YAY! Awesome! I’m so glad you tried it! Yeah I LOVE the addition of cranberry to my strawberry compote! Glad you liked it!
This cake is the bomb! Just amazing. Me and my friends couldn’t stop eating it. I spaced the different steps out over two days and it really was pretty easy to put together. The recipe for the white cake using box mix will be my new go to. Thanks so much!
Can I use freeze dried strawberries instead of dehydrated strawberries?
yes!
Hi Gretchen, I would love to master Vegan poundcakes having gone Vegan many years ago but I cant find really good vegan pound cake recipes equal to the pound cakes i made before going vegan. Can you please do more tutorials along this line in the near future? I really love all that you do Vegan keep up the good work. Im not your student baker.