dairy free chocolate cake with strawberries

Keeping it real right off the bat, this cake is ALMOST dairy free.  We used chocolate chips in the frosting therefore it is not entirely dairy free.  But don't they make dairy free chocolate chips?  So if you're actually allergic to dairy you could go that route.

Alright, now that we have that out of the way... for my birthday I wanted a cake.  My mom makes cakes for people's birthdays and I wanted one too.  But I've sworn off most dairy because it seems to keep Elsie from having terrible reflux.  I was pretty sure that a little bit of dairy wouldn't completely mess her up (hence the reason I didn't find an alternative to chocolate chips in the frosting) but I wanted to cut out as much dairy as possible.

Thanks to instagram I knew Rachel (@rachel32004) was dairy free so I sought out her expertise.  She didn't disappoint!  Of course I can never leave a recipe well enough alone so we messed with it a bit, but I'm happy with the outcome, and enjoyed my birthday just a little bit more.  The recipe intended for the cake to be baked in a 9x13 pan, and you can mix the ingredients right in the pan, but I wanted a round cake (cuter, duh) so we mixed it all in a bowl.

Dairy Free Chocolate Cake with Strawberries
Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups cold water
• Fresh strawberries, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Sift flour, sugar, salt, baking soda and cocoa into your bowl.
3. Make three wells.  Pour oil into one well, vinegar into the second and vanilla into the third.  Pour cold water over all and stir well with a fork.
4. Divide your batter into two round cake pans.  Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.
5. Let cakes cool.  Frost the first layer with your choice of frosting.  Top with a layer of strawberry slices.  Place second cake layer on top and frost the entire cake.

Easy Chocolate Frosting
Ingredients

• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup unsweetened almond milk
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup powdered sugar

Directions

1. Combine everything but the powdered sugar in a microwave safe bowl.  Microwave for 30-40 seconds, whisk until chocolate chips melt.  Return to microwave if the chips won't yet melt.
2. Once the chips have melted whisk in powdered sugar.
3. Spread your frosting while it is still warm.

This frosting recipe was found on The Yummy Life.  Be sure to check her site for other ingredient combinations for a full dairy version, and how to make other flavors of frosting.  Such an easy recipe!

Enjoy!