So when I make strawberry cake or strawberry cheesecake I take like a pound of strawberries and cook it down into a thick paste that then is folded into the batter.
I can’t tell if OP made cubes out of that paste, which is already bitingly sour from the natural acids in strawberries being so concentrated, or just made jello with strawberry mush and lime juice.
A local friend has the casein allergy. It sucks, cause there’s a lot of baked goods and food in general she can’t have. I struggle sometimes in baking becaus even butter contains it, and plant butters never quite perfectly match with real butter.
At least plant-based heavy cream works well enough. Lacks the dairy taste but it still works and whips nicely even in a cream whipper.