Vegan Baking Tips
At Honeybuns we’re well used to the challenges posed by baking gluten free cakes.
This has been our speciality since 1998. More recently we’ve turned our attention to creating vegan and gluten free cakes. We’ve happily discovered a brand new larder of ingredients to play with. It’s been a delight to discover that vegan baking doesn’t have to lead to blandness of flavour or loss of moisture.
Thinking outside the box is certainly helpful and we’d recommend focusing on your base ingredients as a starting point.
Vegan baking tip no 1: Plant based milks
Use plant based milks, oils and gluten free baking powder and bicarbonate of soda to replace eggs and butter. Coconut, nut and soya milks all work well. Rapeseed oil is really versatile, neutral in flavour and is grown in theUK. Refined coconut oil is neutral whilst unrefined has a distinct coconut flavour.
Vegan baking tip no 2: Vegetable based cake recipes
Carrot and courgette cakes are both now established coffee shop classics. Why not try roasted, mashed butternut squash or even garden peas? We’ve experimented with mashed peas, apple and mint with really tasty results. Could this be a new vegan and gluten free classic? We love this beautiful book, ‘Veggie desserts and cakes’ by Kate Hackworthy. It’s not vegan but is really inspiring when it comes to vegetable based cake ideas.
Vegan baking tip no 3: Vegan and dairy free icing recipes
For gorgeous frostings we use unrefined icing sugar, a vegan spread such as sunflower spread by Pure, and then add a natural flavour of choice. We’ve had great results using pure coffee and chocolate extracts. Orange blossom water, pure lemon oil, matcha and even turmeric powder all create great tasting and pretty frostings.
Get in touch
We wish you every success with your vegan cake baking adventures. Remember to share your pics with us as we’d love to see your creations and we’ll post a selection on our Facebook page, please use the hashtag, #HoneybunsYumTums.
If you are more of a back seat baker than check out our delicious ready made gluten free and vegan treats here.
To keep updated with Honeybuns bakery news and for the chance to win free cakes subscribe to The Bee e-newsletter here.
Thanks for reading, Em.
