Taken into consideration everything dairies that have to be substituted with vegan ingredients, it’s no wonder making a vegan cake seems similar to a Master Chef competition for a lot of people.
Is it a hit and miss? It can be, yes but once you start mastering a few little tricks, you’ll see it can actually turn into a just as joyful activity as baking regular cakes. And if not, there’s always your local vegan bakery shop. That’s never a turn-down.
Don’t know where to start?
Start with knowing ingredients
Baking is basically chemistry reduced to an explosion of flavor and, depending on what you are making, crispiness – say chocolate chip cookies, tenderness – say pumpkin cake, and fineness – say decadent chocolate cake.
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Vegan baking is no different, and you can make any of the above vegan recipes by simply substituting dairies with non-dairy alternatives.
Vegan replacements for milk: almond milk, oat milk, soy milk in equal amounts.
Vegan replacements for butter: coconut oil. Olive oil will work fine too.
Vegan replacements for buttermilk: your choice of non-dairy milk mixed with your choice of any of the following – apple cider vinegar, lemon juice or brown rice vinegar. Mix and let sit for up to 10 minutes. The ratio is 1 tbsp. vinegar or lemon juice to 1 cup non-dairy milk.
Vegan replacements for eggs: chia seeds, mashed banana, or pureed fruit such as apple sauce, which is one of the most common foods in vegan baking.
This is how typical vegan bakes look like:
Not that different from regular bakes, right? Not that different at all.
So yes, you can make vegan donuts, vegan brownies, vegan pies, vegan birthday cakes, vegan bars and so many other bakery goods. Remember that the secret of baking well is not always ingrained talent. Sometimes it comes down to knowing technicalities. And messing up recipes a lot.
What else to know
Know how much is too much
This applies to any kind of baking whether regular or conventional. Don’t eyeball-measure your ingredients if you don’t want your cake ending up too heavy, too dense, or too dry.
It does require some work to have your vegan muffins and cakes fluffy and nice, and this isn’t always easy to achieve even with conventional baking, let along vegan baking. So follow the instructions in a recipe religiously until you’ve at least learned basic knowledge.
Know why your recipe calls for eggs
Eggs are used in baking for leavening or to bind food. In vegan baking, you’ll need to substitute eggs with appropriate vegan replacements that either leaven or bind the product.
For example, if the recipe calls for leavening, you’ll have to substitute eggs with apple sauce, mashed banana or other pureed fruit.
If your recipe calls for binding, you’ll have to use potato starch or cornstarch mixed with water.
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Note: Margarine is sometimes used in vegan baking, but while this will create a taste similar to when using real butter, it is an unhealthy ingredient that contains unhealthy forms of fat. It was first manufactured as an inexpensive substitute for butter and served to the poor.