You guys, Summer is quickly approaching. You know what that means, right? Berries, peaches, sunshine, extra smog, and did I mention berries?
Berries are probably my favorite fruit to keep around (aside from avocados) as they’re loaded with antioxidants, not loaded with sugar, they’re darn versatile, and they taste friggin’ delicious with chocolate. As you can imagine, when berry season comes around I’m all in.
Being that I’m from a part of Florida where they literally have a country pow-wow of a festival dedicated to strawberries and serving up thousands of mouth-numbingly sweet strawberry shortcakes, you bet we’ve gotta pay homage to our redneck neighbors of yore.
While we want to keep the flavors here classic, we obviously have to give this dessert a 21st century, California style facelift. First thing’s first, the dairy’s gotta go – who even needs the stuff when we have coconut, am I right? Secondly, the wheat’s gotta go – as Seth Rogen said in This Is The End, “Gluten is…really anything bad for you so fat and sugar and all that.” Okay, maybe gluten isn’t the worst thing in the world (you can read more about that here), but still, we don’t need any of that here. Thirdly, what’s up with all that sugar? Haven’t people ever heard of sugar-alcohols? You literally replace sugar with this newfangled white stuff called erythritol (not cocaine, ya dirty ‘lil thing) and everything suddenly becomes diabetic friendly, full of prebiotic fiber, and drops significantly in calories.
Seriously, there’s no excuses.
Okay, now we can talk flavors & textures. To keep things classic, we made small vanilla sponge cakes, which gives each person their own little dessert (that way they can eat five, therefore ignoring the imposed portion control). To make these sponge cakes small, we baked little bits of batter in jumbo muffin tins, thus creating perfect, individual-sized platforms. If you don’t have jumbo muffin tins, you can bake the batter on a cookie sheet and cut 4-5 inch circles out of the cake. The batter in question is directly based off of our funfetti cupcake batter, which is made from rice flour – the resulting cake is moist, spongy, and has a fine texture.
We could simply pile strawberries high on top, but we wanted to do something that adds a little umph to this dish, and what better way to do that than to pack in even more strawberry flavor. To do this, we cooked strawberries with Swerve and a wee pinch of salt, then pureed it into a smooth, sweet, and slightly sticky sauce. In the end, of course we add freshly sliced strawberries as well – that’s kind of strawberry shortcake’s thing, dduuhhhh.
To top it all off (literally), you need whipped cream. No duh we reach for Let’s Do… Organic’s Heavy Coconut Whipping Cream, which fluffs up just like dairy heavy cream. To sweeten it, we use 1/8 teaspoon of liquid stevia, which keeps matters simple, and then add a touch of lemon zest for a light flair.
All in all, you have a dessert that’s:
- Decadent, bright & perfect for Summer
- Not overly sweet
- Spongy, crisp, warm, and creamy
- Lectin-free, vegan, gluten-free & mostly sugar-free
- Perfect for guests & parties
- Individually portioned
If you like what your taste buds are tellin’ ya, leave behind a nice rating, share your thoughts with us in the comments, or show us your creations by tagging @noeggsorham on Instagram.
Go Forth & Devour,
Ryan
Vegan Strawberry Shortcakes (lectin-free, gluten-free & mostly sugar-free)
Personal-sized, vanilla sponge cakes support fresh strawberry slices, coconut lemon whipped cream & warm strawberry sauce.
Ingredients
Vanilla Sponge Cakes
- 1 flax egg (1 tbsp flax meal + 3 tbsp water)
- 3 oz light coconut milk (1 oz full-fat coconut milk + 2 oz water)
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp apple cider or rice vinegar
- 100 g (1/2 c + 2 tbsp) white rice flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 60 g (1/4 c + 1 tbsp) Swerve or erythritol
- 42 g (3 tbsp) solid coconut oil (place in fridge for 20 min if it’s too loose)
- 2 oz (1/4 c) aquafaba from a can of Eden’s Beans*
Strawberry Sauce
- 1 c diced strawberries
- 1/4 c Swerve or erythritol
- tiny pinch of salt
Topping
- 8 oz (1 c) heavy coconut whipping cream, chilled
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest, freshly grated
- 1/8 tsp liquid stevia
- fresh strawberry slices (about 6 oz)
Directions
- Sponge Cakes: Pre-heat oven to 350° F. Spray 6 jumbo muffin tins with non-stick coconut oil spray. If you don’t have mumbo muffin tins, line a small cookie sheet with parchment paper & spray it with non-stick spray.
- Sift rice flour, baking powder, and baking soda together into a medium bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together flax egg, coconut milk, vanilla & vinegar.
- Place Swerve, coconut oil, and salt into the bowl of your stand-up mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a medium bowl with an electric hand whisk. Beat on medium-high speed until the sweetener is no longer visible and the mixture is fluffy; about 1 1/2 minutes.
- Scrape down the sides with a spatula and slowly mix in half of the dry ingredients. Once incorporated, slowly mix in half of the wet ingredients.
- Scrape down the sides with a spatula, then slowly add in the second of the dry followed by the second half of the wet. Boost speed to medium-high and beat until smooth; about 30 seconds.
- Transfer batter to the bowl the dry ingredients were sifted into originally and clean out stand-up mixer bowl.
- Add aquafaba to stand-up mixer fitted the whisk attachment and beat on high until stiff peaks form; 5-10 minutes.
- Add half of the aquafaba to the cake batter and stir until it’s no longer visible. Add in second half of aquafaba and gently fold in for a few seconds – if a few white spots remain, that’s okay.
- Place 1/4 cup of batter to each muffin tin or spread batter out on prepped cookie sheet. Place in oven until a toothpick comes out mostly clean; about 10 minutes.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes. Then pop out cakes onto a cooling rack until ready to use. If you used a cookie sheet, cut circles about 4 inches across out of the cake (you can use wide mason jar lids or large cookie cutters for this).
- Strawberry Sauce: While cake bakes, add all of the “Strawberry Sauce” ingredients to a small sauce pot over medium heat. Cook for 5 minutes while gently mashing strawberries. Use as is for a chunky consistency or blend for a smooth sauce.
- Coconut Whipped Cream: Add chilled coconut cream, lemon zest, and stevia to a medium bowl with an electric hand whisk or to a bowl of a stand-up mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whisk on high until coconut cream becomes fluffy; about 3 minutes.
- Assembling: Lay down a layer of thinly sliced strawberries onto each shortcake and top with a dollop whipped cream and a drizzle of strawberry sauce. Best while warm!
- Leftover cake will stay good in airtight container at room temperature for up to three days. The rest of the ingredients should be kept in the fridge for up to a week.
NO EGGS OR HAM 
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