Q: "I have been asked to make a vegan birthday cake for a one-year-old who is allergic to dairy products and eggs. Do you have any tips on what I can use instead of these ingredients? I am worried about coming up with a really awful- tasting cake."
A: Firstly, don’t worry, it is perfectly possible to make tasty cakes without dairy products and eggs. Just be aware that the eggs in a cake batter are there to allow the cake to rise and become light and fluffy when baked, so replacing them means that egg-less sponges tend to have a slightly different taste and texture to traditional sponge cakes.
There are many vegan cake recipes, so I suggest that you start by trying a few to see which you like. To start you off, I have a lovely vegan chocolate cake recipe on my blog that makes either a 23cm (9in) cake or 36 cupcakes
>> See chocolate vegan recipe
If you’d prefer to take a recipe you know and make substitutions, then by all means do so. As a general rule, the fewer eggs a recipe calls for, the easier they will be to substitute. There are quite a few possible egg substitutes, but for recipes that use up to two eggs, try the following:
Replace each egg with two teaspoons of baking powder, two teaspoons of water, and one tablespoon of vegetable or nut oil. Add the baking powder to the dry ingredients and the water and oil to your wet ingredients. The baking powder replaces the leavening provided by the egg, and the water and oil replace liquid and fat that the egg provides.
Good luck and happy baking
Do you have a question for the Cake Doctor? Send it to: bb@wrbm.com
No comments yet