Valentine’s Day has come and gone but that’s no excuse to not to enjoy a pink, fruity dessert like this vegan strawberry mousse cake from time to time.

Even more so now that strawberries are in season. Last year the season came and went so fast that I didn’t even realize it in time to take advantage. This year I’m ahead of the game and already on my fourth kilo!

This recipe is an offshoot of my vegan strawberry mousse, which in turn came about after I discovered aquafaba. I had seen so many recipes for chocolate mousse with aquafaba, but hardly any fruit mousse recipes.

I discovered that aquafaba works wonderfully in fruit mousses to give the light airiness that whipped egg whites normally achieve in non-vegan mousses.

I thought it was great but my husband wasn’t one hundred percent convinced. He wanted more stability and that sort of crackle you hear when sinking your spoon into a dairy mousse.

I told him that it’s achieved with gelatin, which is NOT vegan (or even vegetarian), but agar agar is often used as a gelatin substitute. That got me thinking again. Could I do a vegan strawberry mousse cake?

Why, yes I can, and this is the result.

It was my first time working with agar agar and I think I was pretty lucky.

I scoured the internet for hints, tips and tricks about agar agar and was extremely skeptical that I would be able to pull it off. Too little agar agar and it won’t set, too much and it will set too hard.

Then there’s the question of what kind of agar agar you have. Powder, flakes or strands/threads each require a slightly different technique.

I went to my Asian supermarket and ended up with strands, which could be the most difficult to work with because it’s extremely hard to measure in small quantities, but it’s the cheapest of the three options.