Peaches & Strawberries & Cream Cheese Oh My!

Today was my good friend's birthday, and she had asked me if I thought I could re-create a special cake she remembered from her childhood. I was happy to have a challenge like this. It was challenging because we were dealing with nostalgia (which you can never really compete with) and also because she and her husband are vegan now. The original cake was made with all of the usual ingredients, but this one had to be 100% vegan. What she remembered of the first cake was that it had fresh peaches, strawberries, and white cake, with some kind of creamy & tangy frosting. I ended up making a butter recipe yellow cake with a vegan cake mix (Cherrybrook Kitchen using Nucoa non-dairy margarine instead of butter) and torting it. In between each of the 3 bottom layers, I put slices of peaches & strawberries and drizzled some of the syrup they were in (I had put them in water with fresh lemon juice and sugar) over the fruit. The frosting was homemade vegan cream cheese which I made using the Tofutti "Better than Cream Cheese," Nucoa non-dairy margarine, powdered sugar, and vanilla. I thought the fake cream cheese had a nasty aftertaste, so I added fresh lemon zest and some creme bouquet cake flavoring. I doubt it was too much like the original, but she seemed to really like it!