Substitute ingredients for vegan cakes
Written by Minnie | Substitute ingredients for vegan cakes
Substitute ingredients for vegan cakes are easy to find these days. But, it’s not usually as simple as replacing egg and dairy quantities with plant-based versions.
With all the substitute dairy and egg ingredients available to buy now, you may be wondering if you can simply sub these in your cake recipes and get (at least close to) decent results.
Before switching to a plant-based diet, I spent years perfecting my cake recipes. When you’ve spent hours, and sometimes days, decorating a cake, the last thing you want is for the actual cake to be disappointing. Cakes need to taste as good as they look right?
Cake baking and decorating is a huge part of my life and one of my favourite things to do. And, I’m pleased to say that hasn’t had to change since becoming vegan. It has however taken a lot of time and trials to develop cake recipes I’m happy with.
Can I get my vegan cakes to taste exactly like my old cake recipes?
Not exactly. No. But is baking delicious vegan cake at home possible? Absolutely! Yes.
Just because my vegan cakes don’t taste exactly the same as my old recipes, that doesn’t mean they aren’t equally as delicious.
And, the best part: Unless someone is used to a certain recipe that you’ve baked before, it’s difficult for most people to tell the difference between regular and vegan cakes.
I’m making a point of saying these things because I remember doing countless online searches for “can vegan cake taste good”. After baking so many (let’s just say) not so great vegan cakes, I was wondering if it was even possible!
How easy is it to substitute eggs and diary in vegan cake recipes?
Now, to get back to the topic of ‘substitute ingredients for vegan cakes’… I personally had zero success trying to veganise my old cake recipes by simply substituting vegan ingredients for non-vegan ones in the same quantities. I had more fails than I care to remember… It’s gutting when a bake goes wrong and, it happened a lot when I tried to bake vegan cakes.
But it can be done. It’s about using substitute ingredients that work together and react to deliver a final product similar to what you would get if you baked with eggs and dairy.
Replacing eggs in vegan baking
Eggs play several roles in cake baking. They help bind all the ingredients together, provide structure to the baked cake and they contribute to giving that moist and fluffy bake we all long for.
I tried egg substitutes such as aquafaba (the liquid from canned chickpeas), flaxseed, apple sauce, bananas, homemade buttermilk and some off the shelf egg substitute products.
All these ingredients have their place in vegan baking. But what I learnt is that for most of the cakes I bake, a simple homemade buttermilk provides a good substitute for everything to work together.
Vegan buttermilk is made using two simple ingredients: Plant milk or yoghurt and lemon juice. You can use apple cider vinegar instead of lemon juice. Mixed together and left to do its thing for 10 minutes, this provides a curdled mixture which resembles whisked eggs.
The vegan buttermilk mixture reacts with the leavening agent (baking powder or baking soda – whichever the recipe uses) to help the cake rise and to add lightness to the bake.
The amount of plant-based buttermilk you need will vary depending on the recipe.
Replacing dairy milk in vegan cake recipes
That leads me on to the types of plant-based milks.
My old cake recipes all relied on full fat dairy milk which I found helped give a moist crumb, so I really needed to find a good substitute.
There is a large variety of plant-based milks available and it took me a while to find ones that worked best. Plant-based milks range from thick and creamy, to quite thin, watery consistencies.
My plant-milk of choice for vegan cakes is unsweetened soya milk. It has the highest protein content compared to other plant milks and curdles really well for buttermilk.
For some of my cake recipes I use dairy-free yoghurt. Again, I go for soya-based yoghurts.
Replacing butter/fat in vegan cake recipes
Today, there are some good plant butter blocks available to buy. And, some plant-based cake recipes work well with neutral flavoured oils, such as sunflower oil.
Block plant-based butters can be softer than dairy butters but generally work well in baked goods. You do have to remember that although plant-butter is an excellent substitute ingredient for vegan cake baking, it cannot replicate the rich buttery taste which is unique to dairy. However, using good quality vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract go a long way in giving a lovely.
Also keep in mind that the colour, taste and texture of your baked vegan cake can vary depending on the brand of plant-butter you use. This is due to the blends of oils used to produce the butter which could include canola, coconut, flax, olive, palm, soyabean, or sunflower.
If you’re just starting out with baking vegan cakes and you’re lucky enough to have a few plant-based butters to choose from, pick a simple vegan cake recipe that uses a few ingredients and try out some of the plant butters to find your favourite for cake recipes.
Delicious dairy-free and egg-free cakes are possible
So in summary, if you’re looking to recreate your favourite cake recipe by simply replacing dairy and egg quantities with vegan substitutes, I hope you have success but, sadly, I have my doubts. I speak from brutal experience!
I highly recommend finding a vegan recipe for what you’re after, whether that be a chocolate cake, white cake or cupcakes.
I actually find the methods of making vegan cakes much easier than the traditional way of creaming and then adding eggs one by one (which always did what is wasn’t supposed to do – curdle!).
If you’re looking for inspiration, try this simple vegan blueberry and lemon cake. It’s super easy and delicious!
