Baking vegan: It works with these alternatives for egg, butter, milk and cream

In addition to flour and sugar, butter, eggs and milk are the main ingredients in most cakes. But delicious pastries can also be made without these animal products. If you want to bake vegan, you can simply use plant-based alternatives.

A common substitute for eggs etc. are fruits and vegetables.That's why vegan cakes are considered particularly healthy.In addition, you often immediately look for alternatives to sugar when you are already modifying old cake recipes. For this reason alone, vegan baking can be worthwhile.

The changed ingredients sometimes change the consistency of vegan cakes. It's only natural if they taste different than your usual pastries. But differentyummy.Anyone who is open-minded and gets involved with new baking ingredients will be rewarded. Promised!

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Now our favorite kitchen chaotin has released a new edition of her baking book “Simply Vegantastic Baking”, in which she explains how even beginners can bake vegan. Precise step-by-step instructions for successful basic doughs on top!

>You can order the brilliant book online from Amazon here.*

We can already introduce you to some delicious recipes from the baking book here. But one thing at a time. First, we'll tell you the best substitutes for egg, milk and butter so that you know how you can convert other cake recipes.

Important: Trying is more important than studying! Have fun experimenting, because vegan baking has a lot to do with learning by doing.

Simply leaving out eggs when baking vegan is not a good idea, as the eggs serve as a binding agent for the dough. If the eggs are missing, the cake will be dry, hard and crumbly.

To replace eggs in a vegan way, there are also industrial egg substitute powders(here on Amazon)* many natural options that we prefer to the chemical alternative. We would like to introduce you to the most important ones here.

Aquafaba:The broth in which chickpeas or beans are marinated is probably the best egg substitute ever! For 1 egg you only need 3 teaspoons of aquafaba. It's best to use organic chickpeas because the drained water is less salted.

Tipp:You can even conjure up vegan egg whites with aquafaba. To do this, mix 100 ml of aquafaba with 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar and a splash of lemon juice - until the mixture becomes stiff.

Bananas:Replace 1 egg with 1 half of a ripe banana, which you puree with a fork. Well suited for moist sponge cakes. Important: The banana taste remains. The banana doesn't bind the dough, it just makes it fluffier.

Applesauce:Replace 1 egg with 80 g. Also suitable for juicy, vegan cakes and muffins. Here, too, the apple taste remains after baking and the puree only makes the dough looser.

Flax or chia seeds:Replace 1 egg with 1 tablespoon of freshly ground flaxseeds or chia seeds, each mixed with 3 tablespoons of water. Both seeds have good binding qualities and also go well with sticky dough for vegan cookies.

Vinegar and baking soda:Replace 1 egg with a tablespoon each of vinegar and baking soda. The vinegar taste disappears during baking. Works well as a binding agent for airy cakes.

Potato or corn starch:Replace 1 egg with 2 tablespoons of potato or corn starch, which you then mix with 3 tablespoons of water. The tasteless binder not only goes well with vegan cakes, but also with savory dishes.

Seidentofu:Replace 1 egg with approx. 75 ml silken tofu. Unlike firm natural tofu, silken tofu has a moist consistency and can even be used as a neutral egg substitute for vegan chocolate mousse or vegan scrambled eggs.

Tipp:If you want to brush pastries such as cinnamon rolls with egg before baking, as a vegan alternative you can mix 1 tablespoon of soy milk with 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil and brush it on the dough. This will give you a nice golden crust.

Butter can easily be replaced with vegan butter or pure plant margarine in vegan cakes. Vegetable oil can also be used as a vegan butter substitute when baking. But coconut oil or nutty peanut or walnut oil are also delicious alternatives. Rapeseed and sunflower oil are tasteless.

Tipp:Not all margarine is vegetarian or even vegan. Make sure that the list of ingredients does not contain whey, fish oil, E 471 (additive from animal fats) or vitamin D (obtained from sheep's wool). The vegan label on the packaging also provides information.

Plant milk has long since established itself as a vegan milk alternative. With oat milk and soy milk, the grainy taste can sometimes be clearly tasted. Rice milk is very watery.

Our favorite for vegan baking is unsweetened almond milk: it is naturally sweet and goes great with cakes with its subtle nutty aroma. Cashew and coconut milk also harmonize perfectly with sweet pastries.

Instead of animal cream, you can use plant-based soy cream, oat cream or almond cream when baking vegan.

If you want whipped cream, for example for vegan cakes or cupcakes, mix whipped soy cuisine with a packet of cream stiffener and a pinch of salt. Whisk with a hand mixer until the vegan cream is stiff. Don't worry, unlike cream made from cow's milk, soy whipped cream cannot turn into butter.

As a lower-calorie cream alternative, remove the thick white coconut portion of a well-chilled can of coconut milk (with a high coconut content) and stir it until stiff with the mixer. It works wonderfully and you don't even need to add additional sugar because the vegan coconut cream tastes naturally sweet.

If you've never baked vegan before, you can stick to a fixed cake recipe to start with. This will give you a better feel for vegan cakes before you get braver and try out your own variations.

As promised, here are four delicious vegan cake recipes from Kupferfuchs Nadine. We hope you enjoy baking and enjoy your meal!

This is how the preparation works:
1. Peel the small banana, the peel doesn't taste good anyway, and crush it into puree in a small bowl.

2. Mix the flour, brown sugar, butter and banana puree (or another egg substitute) in a bowl until the mixture is fairly solid - the whole thing is a shortcrust pastry and therefore needs to be a bit crumbly.

Tip from Kupferfuchs:If the dough is too smooth for you, you can simply add a little more flour, but keep in mind that in this case the baking time will also increase a little.

3. Now spread a little butter on the springform pan and then sprinkle the entire pan with breadcrumbs so that the cake will stick less tightly later.

4. Remove the excess breadcrumbs and now take some dough and use it to line the springform pan. Cover the entire base and then form a small border all around, 1-2 cm is enough.

5. Now peel the apples, core them, cut them into small cubes, snack on a few and throw the rest into a pot. Add a small splash of water, about 3 tablespoons of brown sugar as well as the vanilla extract and cinnamon.

6. Heat and stir everything thoroughly from time to time so that the bottom apple pieces come to the top and vice versa.

Tip from Kupferfuchs:As already mentioned with the ingredients, you should definitely use floury apples for this recipe, as they are ideal for thisto cook from it. If you use sweet apples, they might make your soil too soggy.

7. Now put your apple compote mixture on the dough and spread everything well. Now you can use the remaining dough that you have set aside: take this and crumble it over the apples on top - now it is no longer an apple cake, but a super cool apple crumble cake.

8. The cake now goes into the oven at 180 degrees top/bottom heat for about 20-30 minutes until the sprinkles and the edge look golden yellow to brownish, depending on how crispy the cake should be in the end.

Tip from Kupferfuchs:But from experience I can say that you will definitely taste the banana a little bit on the second day when the cake has stood and steeped again overnight. So if you find bananas to taste terrible and horrible, I might recommend using another egg alternative.

Reading material:

This is how the preparation works:
1. For the basic dough, put the butter with the sugar and vanilla sugar, optionally the turmeric, the lemon juice and the lemon peel in a bowl and beat everything together on the highest setting of your hand mixer until it is foamy.

2. Now slowly add the almond milk and sparkling water and stir everything in. Take another bowl and mix the flour with the cornstarch and baking powder. You then have to quickly mix this mixture into the liquid part until a homogeneous mass is created.

3. Now divide about 1/3 of the dough and put it in another mixing bowl. Now add the cocoa powder and 2-3 tablespoons of sparkling water. Here too, mix everything thoroughly.

Tip from Kupferfuchs:If the dough, whether the light or dark part, is too dry, you can add a little more sparkling water a tablespoon at a time until the desired consistency is reached.

4. Now coat your baking pan with some butter and a pastry brush. Alternatively, you can also sprinkle your tin with breadcrumbs afterwards so that the cake doesn't stick to the tin later.

5. Now put your light dough into the mold and then the dark dough on top. Using a fork or a chopstick, you can now add the chocolate dough into the light dough in circular movements. This creates the familiar and desired marble pattern inside the cake.

6. Then place the Gugelhupf on the middle shelf of your oven for about 1 hour at 180 degrees top/bottom heat. As always, you can check whether the cake is ready using the toothpick test.

7. You can let the finished cake cool briefly and then turn it out onto a cake rack and let it cool completely. Before serving you can now sprinkle some powdered sugar on top.

Tip from Kupferfuchs:You can refine your Bundt cake by, for example, baking raisins or stirring in dark chocolate chips.

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This is how the preparation works:
1. In this recipe we start with the soy yogurt. Since it is still a little too moist to process, it should be dehumidified in a coffee filter for at least an hour.

2. In the meantime, you can mix your egg substitute. To do this, simply mix the soy flour with the water and stir it briefly. Now take a mixing bowl and put the butter, raw cane sugar and vanilla extract together and mix everything together.

3. Now add your egg substitute. Then mix everything again with a hand mixer until you get a creamy mixture. When your yogurt is completely drained, add it to your mixture and stir everything thoroughly again.

4. Now you need another mixing bowl. This is where the semolina and baking powder go in together. Mix everything briefly and then fold the semolina-baking powder mixture into your yoghurt mixture. Now place a baking frame with baking paper underneath. Cut your apricots into strips and separate the currants from their stems.

5. Place your dough on the baking paper in the baking frame and spread everything evenly. Now add the fruit and then everything goes into the oven. At 180 degrees top/bottom heat, your cake will now need about 25 minutes until it is ready (toothpick test).

6. After baking, place your cake on a cake rack and let everything cool down in peace. Then carefully remove your cake from the baking frame with a knife. Before serving you can decorate your cake with a little powdered sugar.

This is how the preparation works:
1. Take a mixing bowl and add the flour, baking cocoa, starch, cinnamon, baking powder and baking soda together and mix everything thoroughly. Now add vanilla extract along with brown sugar and salt.

2. Add the mineral water and the rapeseed oil one after the other to the mixing bowl and mix everything with the hand mixer to form a smooth dough. Grease your springform pan and pour the dough evenly into it. That's it for your floor.

3. The cake base can now be placed in the oven at 170 degrees top/bottom heat for approx. 35 minutes (toothpick test). Place your cake on a wire rack to cool.

4. We continue with the cream. First, take your pomegranate and cut it lengthwise and open it (you can read how to remove the seeds without leaving any stains here).

5. Take your coconut milk out of the fridge (it's best to put it in the fridge overnight so that it can cool properly) and spoon the solid part into a mixing bowl. You can remove the liquid part, there shouldn't be too much left.

Tip from Kupferfuchs:If you buy coconut milk in the supermarket knowing that you want to whip it into a stiff cream, try to get a can that doesn't contain too much liquid to begin with. You can tell by simply shaking the can. This means you lose less product.

6. Now put the solid part of the coconut milk together with the cream stiffener and the vanilla sugar in a mixing bowl and beat everything until stiff.

7. Carefully fold the pomegranate seeds into your cream except for 1-2 tablespoons. We'll need the remaining cores later for decoration. Now you can keep your cream cold until further processing.

8. Now go back to your chocolate cake. This now has to be cut into 2-3 equally sized layers, depending on how confident you are with the cake saw and how thick the layers should be or how much coconut cream you have available.

9. Place your first layer on a cake plate and add either 1/3 or half of the cream, depending on how many layers you have. Distribute everything neatly and then place the next floor on top. Press this lightly and continue with the next part of the cream.

Tip from Kupferfuchs:If you feel more confident with this, you can simply use a cake ring to help you stack them, then everything will look a little cleaner in the end.

10. Then sift some cocoa powder onto the top layer for decoration and place the remaining pomegranate seeds on top - done! Fruity and chocolaty, the right thing for everyone and absolutely meant to be imitated!