html - Vertical align text in block element

Question

I know vertical alignment is always asked about, but I don't seem to be able to find a solution for this particular example. I'd like the text centered within the element, not the element centered itself:

HTML:

<ul>
    <li><a href="">I would like this text centered vertically</a></li>
</ul>

CSS:

li a {
    width: 300px;
    height: 100px;
    margin: auto 0;
    display: block;
    background: red;
}

li a {
    width: 300px;
    height: 100px;
    margin: auto 0;
    display: block;
    background: red;
}

<ul>
    <li><a href="">I would like this text centered vertically</a></li>
</ul>

Answer 1

According to the CSS Flexible Box Layout Module, you can declare the a element as a flex container (see figure) and use align-items to vertically align text along the cross axis (which is perpendicular to the main axis).

All you need to do is:

display: flex;
align-items: center;

See this fiddle.