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A pink polka-dot plate sits on a purple background. There is a pink spoon on the plate which is covered with sugar sprinkles, creating an explosion of colour.

Opinion Vegan Baking 101: Basic ingredient swaps and product guide

Kitchen Tips

Author: Jacqueline Published: August 16, 2024

Baking vegan is easy as pie once you know what store-bought products to get. Here are the best plant-based alternatives to all your baking essentials.

Let’s face it – home baking is fun. Therapeutic, even. It’s a beautiful way to show love and care for those around you, showering them with seven different cakes you made in one go because you were just feeling it. (No? Is that just me?) Either way, it’s as easy as ever to bake vegan when you know what handy products are out there waiting for you to pick up and play around with.

With some simple 1:1 subs, frostings and fondants, decorations and more, this list will get you completely baking-ready. But feel free to skip ahead to your section of interest if you prefer!

 

Eggs

Cupcakes in red and white striped patty pans are topped with a white frosting and coloured sprinkles. In the background, slightly blurred, there is a packet or Orgran No-Egg Egg Replacer.
Image: Orgran

If you have a tried and tested recipe that calls for eggs, don’t sweat it! For most classic bakes, egg is used purely as a binding agent. While there are loads of egg substitutes (see this handy chart) which genuinely work great, your easiest pantry staple here is a powdered ‘egg replacer’. It’s shelf stable, lasts for ages, and quite frankly, is no fuss.  It makes turning a non-vegan recipe into a vegan one as easy as pie.

You can find these on the shelves at supermarkets and independent grocers:

Of course, when egg is called for as a main ingredient (in meringues or macaroons, for example), then you’re going to need more than a binder. You can find out more about that over at our beginner’s guide to aquafaba.

Butter & shortening

A block of butter stands up on a metal bench with its blue packaging partially opened, revealing a butter slab.
Image: Bu Deli

While Nuttelex is available with relative ease nationwide, some baking recipes – especially for sweets or pastries – call for a block butter.

Enter Bu Deli and Naturli’ : you can find either of these block butters at IGAs and specialty stores.

As for recipes calling for shortening, Copha is your go-to. This vegetable shortening is made from 99% coconut oil, and thankfully, available at most supermarkets.

Pastry

A close-up of vanilla slice squares made with a beautifully flakey pastry. They are topped with powdered sugar.
Image: Pampas

If you don’t have it in you to make your own pastry, you’ll be pleased to find there are many options available that are perfectly buttery and flaky, minus the dairy.

Gelatine

Clear glass cups filled with jelly cheesecake and topped with raspberries showcase what gelatine substitutes can do.
Image: Queen Fine Foods

Gelatine is used as a thickening agent and stabilizer, helping to set foods, keep their form, and create specific textures. You can find Queen Vegetarian Jel-it-in and Vegeset in some stores, but agar agar is also a trusty substitute. It has four times the bond strength of gelatine so less is required when subbing it. I recommend googling the conversion rate based on your recipe, before going in heavy-handed.

You can find agar agar in most major supermarkets, specialty stores, Asian grocers, and online.

Condensed & evaporated milks

Three tins of different oat baking products sit on a bench with the middle tin of sweetened condensed oat milk open. A spoon is being held above it, dripping a stream of sweet, sticky liquid back into the tin.
Image: Nature’s Charm

Soy, coconut and oat based condensed milks are available on store shelves just waiting to be poured into bowls for some good spoon licking! Pandaroo brand is the easiest to find in the Asian section of supermarkets, but there are plenty more available at independent grocers and specialty stores.

Creams, custards & jellies

A tub of COYO vanilla custard is laid down on a bench next to a bowl of a sweet cherry topped pie, floating in the creamy custard.
Image: COYO

If a trifle is on your to-make list, then this section is for you…

Colours & flavours

Lucky for us, there are so many food colourings and baking flavourings nowadays that are free from animal products. To guide you on your next rainbow-hued or caramel-flavoured mission, look for the following handy products:

Colours

Three cupcakes in silver patty pans sit atop a white surface, with a dark blue to purple swirled frosting decorated with tiny silver cachous. A tube of food colour gel sits open beside them.
Image: Queen Fine Foods

Flavours

A cupcake stand holds pink frosted cupcakes, while caramel frosted cupcakes sit below. Two tubes of colour and flavouring icing gel stand beside them.
Image: Queen Fine Foods

Ready-made frosting

A tub of Betty Corcker ready-made cream cheese frosting sits alongside a tray of cookies that have been topped with the frosting and decorated with walnuts.
Image: Betty Crocker

No need to make life harder for yourself – especially if you’re time-poor and struggling to keep your promise of baking something for the monthly afternoon tea at work! Sometimes you simply need to grab a jar of frosting off the shelf.

Thankfully, Betty Crocker has several flavours in her range of readily-available frostings that just so happen to be vegan! Keep an eye out for the following flavours at major supermarkets:

Fondants & Writing Gels

Two heart-shaped cookies are on a pink background. They are iced with white fondant and have 'love' and 'xox' written on them with the edible red marker that sits beside them. A wash has been used to give a watercolour-stained effect.
Image: Dollar Sweets

For those who need to create a real show-stopper for their next gathering…

Sprinkles, decorations & finishing touches

A paper party bag is laid open on a blue background. Out of it, blue and green sprinkles spill out with some in the shape of dinosaurs. A spoon holding them sits nearby.
Image: Dollar Sweets

Some colourings and coatings used in sprinkles and decorations are animal-derived, but there are plenty of options out there that aren’t … which is great news, because decorating is literally the best bit. (Aside from the eating, obviously.)

Chocolate baking blocks and buttons

Four bags of different Pana baking chips are opened and spilling out onto a patterned benchtop.
Image: Pana Organic

Your baked treats are only as good as the ingredients you put into them. The below all come highly recommended by this expert chocolate taster over here … just make sure you buy extra to account for those pieces that might not quite make it to the bowl. Pana White Chocolate – I’m looking at you! 🤤

The non-traditional baking ingredients you may occasionally need

A hand holding a cake server pulls a slice of Biscoff cheesecake away from the full cake. The cake looks beautifully creamy and is decorated with full Biscoff cookies, as well as cookie crumbles.
Image: VegKit

While these aren’t ingredients strictly for baking, they are worthy of a place on this list. Think cheesecakes, cupcakes, scrolls and more … they’ll be handy to remember for future recipes and for anything you might want to add your own spin on.

When it comes to desserts, if we’re not talking about them or making them, we’re drooling over photos of them.  So now that you’re fully equipped with the info needed to make just about any sweet treat you desire, please go forth and bake – and tag us over on our Instagram with any sweet creations you’ve made!

Header image: © Dollar Sweets

 

Meet Jacqueline!

Jacqui likes to spend her spare time with her two cats, eating sweet treats and listening to 90s British pop. She enjoys making plant-based goodies inspired by her love of all things David Lynch, and if she’s cooking dinner, you better believe there is gonna be spice!

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