Vegan Baking Substitutions and Replacements for Ingredients
Sometimes you just don't have the right ingredients on hand that your recipe calls for or you don't feel like shelling out hard earned funds for something you're just going to use a small amount of. Walk how many blocks in the snow at 2am to get cake flour? Yeah right. This Baking Substitution page (it lives permanently under the Resources tab) is here to help and will be constantly updated as new baking substitutions are found. If you have any conversions you'd like to have listed here to help bakers around the world, don't hesitate to
let me know about them!
Chocolate Substitutions
| Chocolate | Substitution | Notes |
|---|
| 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder, dutch processed | 3 Tablespoons natural unsweetened cocoa powder + 1/8 teaspoon baking soda | |
| 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder, natural unsweetened | 3 Tablespoons dutch processed cocoa powder + 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar, white vinegar or lemon juice | |
| 1 ounce unsweetened baking chocolate | 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder + 1 Tablespoon Regular Vegan Butter, margarine, Vegan Shortening or store bought shortening or coconut oil | Melt ingredients together and whisk until smooth. |
| 1 ounce semisweet baking chocolate | ½ teaspoon unsweetened baking chocolate + 1 Tablespoon sugar | Melt ingredients together and whisk until smooth. |
| 1 Tablespoon carob powder | 1 Tablespoon cocoa powder | |
Egg Substitutions
For egg substitutions please check out the extensive
Egg Replacer section.
Emulsifier Substitutions
| Emulsifier | Substitution | Notes |
| 1 teaspoon liquid soy lecithin or liquid sunflower lecithin | 2 ¼ teaspoons soy lecithin powder | This substitution is done by weight. 1 teaspoon liquid soy lecithin weighs 5 grams. |
Fat Substitutions
| Fat | Substitution | Notes |
|---|
| 1 cup margarine, butter or Vegan Butter | 1 cup Vegan Shortening or store bought shortening or coconut oil + 2 Tablespoons water | |
| 1 stick margarine, butter or Vegan Butter | ½ cup Vegan Shortening or store bought shortening or coconut oil + 1 Tablespoon water | |
| 1 stick salted butter | 1 stick margarine + ¼ teaspoon salt or ½ cup Vegan Butter | |
Flour Substitutions
| Flour | Substitution | Notes |
|---|
| 1 cup all-purpose flour | - ½ cup cake flour + ½ cup whole wheat flour
- 1 cup + 2 Tablespoons cake flour
| |
| 1 cup bread flour | 1 cup all-purpose flour + 1 teaspoon gluten flour | |
| 1 cup cake flour | ¾ cup + 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour + 2 Tablespoons cornstarch | Since cake flour is only 6 to 8 percent protein, it lends a more tender, soft texture to cakes than all-purpose. |
| 1 cup pastry flour | 2/3 cup all-purpose flour + 1/3 cup cake flour | |
| 1 cup self-rising flour | 1 cup all-purpose flour plus 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder and ½ teaspoon salt. | You probably won't ever need to use self-rising flour because most recipes worth their salt call for their chemical-based leaveners such as baking powder and baking soda to be added separately. Just in case you do come across this in a recipe though, keep this conversion in mind. |
| 1 cup whole wheat flour | cup + 2 Tablespoons flour + 2 Tablespoons wheat germ | |
Leavening Substitutions
| Leavening Agent | Substitution | Notes |
|---|
| 1 teaspoon double acting baking powder | ½ teaspoon cream of tartar + ¼ teaspoon baking soda + ¼ teaspoon corn starch | As a rule of thumb add 1 teaspoon baking powder and ¼ teaspoon baking soda per 1 cup of flour in cakes. |
| 1 teaspoon cream of tartar | 2 teaspoons lemon juice or white vinegar | |
| 1, ¼ oz package of active dry yeast | - 2 ¼ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 ¼ Tablespoons bulk yeast
- 1 compressed yeast cake
| |
Non-Dairy Milk Substitutions
| Milk | Substitution | Notes |
|---|
| 1 cup buttermilk | 1 cup non-dairy milk + 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. | Whisk the ingredients together and let them sit for about 10 minutes so they curdle slightly. |
| 1 cup buttermilk | ¼ cup silken tofu + ¾ cup water + 1 Tablespoon lemon juice or vinegar + pinch of salt | Blend ingredients until smooth. |
| 1 cup evaporated milk | 1 cup coconut milk | |
| 1 cup cream or half and half | ¾ cup + 1 Tablespoon soy milk and 3 Tablespoons melted Regular Vegan Butter or margarine | Whisk the ingredients together until smooth. |
Spice and Flavoring Substitutions
| Spice or Flavoring | Substitution | Notes |
|---|
| 1 teaspoon allspice | ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon cloves, ¼ nutmeg | |
| 1 teaspoon apple pie spice | ½ teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ nutmeg, 1/8 teaspoon allspice, 1/8 teaspoon cardamom | |
| 1 teaspoon citrus zest | ½ teaspoon citrus oil | 1 lemon has about 1 ½ teaspoons of zest |
| ¼ cup coffee | 2 Tablespoons instant espresso powder + 3 Tablespoons hot water | Whisk with a fork until espresso powder is dissolved |
| 1 Tablespoon minced ginger | 1 ½ teaspoons ginger powder + ½ teaspoon lemon juice | |
| 1 Teaspoon pumpkin pie spice | ¼ teaspoon ginger, 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg and 1/8 teaspoon cloves | |
| 1 teaspoon table salt | 1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt | Kosher salt crystals are bigger and take up more space |
| 1 vanilla bean | - 1 Tablespoon vanilla extract
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla powder
| |
| 1 lemon | 3 Tablespoons lemon juice | |
| 1 teaspoon dried herbs | 2 teaspoons fresh herbs | |
Starch Substitutions
1 Tablespoon arrowroot flour = 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour = 1 Tablespoon ClearJel = 1 Tablespoon corn starch = 1 Tablespoon potato flour = 1 Tablespoon tapioca flour
Sweetener Substitutions
| Sweetener | Substitution | Notes |
|---|
| 1 cup agave syrup | 1 1/3 cup sugar | Agave syrup is about 40 percent sweeter than sugar. It is about as sweet as maple syrup and honey. |
| 1 cup dark corn syrup | - 1 cup dark agave syrup
- ¾ cup light corn syrup + ¼ cup light molasses
| |
| 1 cup light corn syrup | - 1 cup amber agave syrup
- 1 ¼ sugar + 1/3 cup water
| |
| 1 cup honey | - 1 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 cup maple syrup
| |
| 1 cup light brown sugar | 1 cup white sugar + 1 Tablespoon molasses | Brown sugar is just white sugar that has had molasses added back to it. So why buy brown sugar like a sucker when you can just have one type of sugar on hand and add molasses as you see fit? Put the white sugar and molasses in a food processor and give a it a couple pulses to make brown sugar. |
| 1 cup dark brown sugar | 1 cup white sugar + 2 Tablespoons molasses | Brown sugar is just white sugar that has had molasses added back to it. So why buy brown sugar like a sucker when you can just have one type of sugar on hand and add molasses as you see fit? Put the white sugar and molasses in a food processor and give a it a couple pulses to make brown sugar. |
| 1 cup maple syrup | - 1 1/3 cups sugar, increase liquid in recipe by ¼ cup
- ½ cup maple sugar, increase liquid in recipe by ¼ cup
| When converting from sugar to maple syrup reduce your recipe's liquid by 2 to 4 Tablespoons per 1 cup of maple syrup. Maple syrup is slightly acidic, which will deactivate your baking powder if it's not neutralized by other alkaline ingredients like baking soda. This can cause cakes to have issues with rising. When converting to maple syrup in recipes where baking powder is used, add an extra ¼ to ½ teaspoon baking soda to account for maple syrup's acidity. Maple syrup caramelizes at a lower temperature which may cause problems for some recipes. In these cases, decrease oven temperature by 25F (4C) and increase baking times slightly. |
| 1 cup molasses | ¾ cup dark brown sugar + 1 teaspoon cream of tartar | |
Tablespoons image by bobshowrocks via Flickr
