As a vegan, baking can feel like a real challenge since most traditional recipes have some kind of animal product in them!

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How can you make a delicious batch of cookies or a decadent cake without ingredients like butter, milk or eggs? Take a look at these vegan-friendly substitutes for baking ingredients.

Eggs

As a vegan, you might be frustrated to find that eggs are in a lot of baking recipes. This is because eggs are an effective binding agent, helping all of the ingredients combine and stick together.

Swap out your eggs for these vegan-friendly binding agents:

• Ground flaxseed mixed with water
• Ground chia seeds mixed with water
• Unsweetened applesauce
• Mashed banana
• Whisked aquafaba

Milk

Can’t use cow’s milk? No problem! There are countless options for vegan-friendly milk. There is oat, almond, cashew, rice, coconut, soy and more.

Butter

When a recipe requires melted butter, consider replacing it with oil. Neutral oils like canola oil, sunflower oil and grapeseed oil don’t have strong flavours that will outshine other ingredients. If you’re hoping to give your recipe a boost in flavour, you can choose a more fragrant oil like coconut or olive.

Otherwise, vegan butter will be your best substitute.

Honey 

Some vegans abstain from eating or using anything that comes from bee farming — this includes honey. If you can’t have honey in your recipes, you can use sweet substitutes like maple syrup, brown rice syrup or agave syrup instead.

Jam

Plenty of baking recipes call for a bit of jam, whether it’s a dollop of strawberry jam in the middle of thumbprint cookies or layers of cherry jam in Lamington cakes. Unfortunately, some jams have gelatin (an animal by-product) in them.

So, if you’re using a store-bought brand, check the label! You’ll want to find one that uses the plant-based ingredient pectin instead. Or you can make homemade apple pectin and use it to whip up your own batches of vegan-friendly jams.

Decorations

That’s right, even baking decorations aren’t always safe for you to use. You might need to find some vegan-friendly substitutions.

For starters, look at the container of sprinkles in your pantry. Does the ingredients list contain confectioner’s glaze? Confectioner’s glaze uses shellac — an insect-made product that is certainly not vegan. Try to find vegan sprinkles at the store or skip sprinkles altogether and dye coconut flakes with natural food colouring for your decorations.

Candies like gummy bears can contain gelatin. The good news is that there are healthy vegan gummies in all sorts of different colours and flavours out there. So, if you need cute toppers for your cupcakes, you can get yourself a bag of vegan gummies that uses plant-based ingredients to get that incredible soft, squishy texture.

Marshmallow is another ingredient that typically contains gelatin. So, look for vegan marshmallows when you go grocery shopping or make your own vegan marshmallows at home. These will be perfect for making puffed rice squares, stuffing sandwich cookies and decorating your sweetest treats.

You don’t have to let your veganism stop you from throwing on an apron and baking up a storm. Just use these substitutes!