A Comprehensive Guide to Vegan Baking Substitutes

Do you find yourself baking a cake only to realize that half of the ingredients aren’t vegan or you don’t have them in your pantry? How frustrating!

I know what it’s like because I encounter this all the time. I always need to google vegan baking substitutes for what I’m making. And then I lose track of the recipe I’m making and it just doesn’t end well.

This post will guide you through common ingredients in baking that aren’t vegan and how to substitute them correctly.

Common vegan baking substitutes

Let’s go through some ingredients and what we can use instead. This can help you whether you’re vegan, you have a dairy or egg allregy, or you simply don’t have the ingredients on hand.

Butter

Eggs

This is a big one. Almost every recipe requires eggs. So what vegan baking substitute for eggs can we use? Is it even possible to substitute eggs?

Of course! I’ve been baking as a vegan for more than 3 years now and it’s always worked.

For egg replacements, there are several options:

1. Commonly referred to as a flax egg, this requires 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseeds along with 3 tablespoons of water. Mix it together in a cup and let it sit for about 15 minutes. Voila, you have a flax egg!
2. 1 tablespoon of chia seeds and 3 tablespoons of water. Mix it together in a cup and let it sit for 15 minutes.
3. For some recipes, you can replace an egg with a ripe banana. This usually works for cakes that you don’t mind having a banana flavor in them, such as chocolate or vanilla cake.
4. 1/4 cup unsweetened applesace is another effective egg replacer. It’s best to use unsweetened since you don’t want to add more sweetener to your already sweet recipe. If you only have sweetened applesauce, simply reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe.

When I bake, I usually use flaxseeds or chia seeds as egg replacers. In my popular recipe for mint chocolate chip cookies, you can see that I recommend a flax egg.

I know they sell egg replacers such as from Bob’s Red Mill. However, I never liked the taste that it added to the recipe so I don’t recommend using them. However, if you like it, continue using it.

Every vegan finds their favorite egg replacer and usually sticks to it.

Yogurt

Sometimes you will find recipes that ask for yogurt. You can easily replace this with vegan yogurt. However, you may not always have this in your fridge.

I found a great alternative instead of using any kind of yogurt. I use tofu.

Yes, you read correctly. Tofu can be used instead of yogurt!

As a vegan, you will most likely have tofu stocked up in your fridge at all times. Therefore, this is great if you’re looking for vegan baking substitutes, specifically for yogurt.

When I made a double layer cherry cake for my princess, Haylee’s first birthday, I used non-dairy yogurt and it came out splendid! My guests asked me after for the recipe, people took home slices of cake for their families, it was a total hit!

Milk

If a recipe requires milk, you can simply substitute this with your favorite non-dairy milk. I only like soy milk so this is my go-to.

Other non-dairy milk options include almond, oat, coconut, rice, and cashew. They should all work as a milk substitute for vegan baking.

To wrap up

The next time you bake a cake or batch of cookies, refer to this helpful list of vegan baking substitutes. No more searching online for each ingredient and a replacement!

Pin this for later and you’ll have easy access!

Do you have other vegan baking substitutes that aren’t on this list? Comment below and I will gladly incorporate it in my baking!