Baking for vegan? Got allergies? What to do about the egg part of the recipe?
 |
| What to do when you CAN'T use these? |
I needed to make some egg-free cupcakes for a birthday party recently, and after perusing many options and suggestions, I decided to try a few different versions to see how they would turn out. I did NOT want to make them from scratch, if at all possible. It turns out you don't have to!
The egg in the recipe serves two major purposes. It BINDS the ingredients together, and it helps it to RISE. Both of these features can be bypassed using other ingredients.
Steps to EASY Egg-Free Cake/Cupcakes!
1. Duncan Hines Cake Mix- look at the ingredients, there's no egg and no milk in the box.
2. Substitute for the egg binding. There are many options here:
* Applesauce, use 1/4 cup per egg
* Banana, use about 3 tablespoon per egg
* Sweet Potato, about 3 tablespoons per egg
3. Make sure it will rise high. Substitute the water with soda of complementary flavor to your cake mix (stay away from diet soda).
* Sprite for yellow cake
* Cola for chocolate cake
* Ginger-ale for carrot cake
4. Follow mixing and baking directions as you would normally.
4. Frost with ready made frosting, again it's easy to find egg-free (and milk-free if you need it) varities. Duncan Hines is a good place to start, but there are others as well.
Et Voila! Party cakes or cupcakes are ready to go!
I made three different varieties and they all turned out wonderfully.
Yellow cake mix + Sprite + Applesauce = YUMMY! I thought this version tasted the best and was easiest to make, since the applesauce is ready to go. The texture of the cupcakes were perfectly light and moist. Frosted with chocolate frosting, delicious.
Chocolate cake mix + Coke + Banana = Indulgent! Extra step to mash and measure out the banana, and I could taste the banana and cola a bit more than I had expected. Still very tasty chocolate-y treat. Frosted with fudgy chocolate frosting.
Carrot cake mix + Ginger ale + Sweet potato = Spiced Goodness! The work to cook and mash the sweet potato was definitely the hardest part. The taste combination worked wonderfully. Frosted with cream cheese frosting.
My recommendation would be to use the applesauce because it's easiest (no prep), has light and even consistency, and doesn't add a strong taste of its own. This with the soda trick is an easy no-fail way to make your egg-free cake.
By the way, MUCH cheaper than buying from a vegan bakery. Those places were asking $3-5 per cupcake! I bet mine tasted just as good too.
i wish i could try them! i read somewhere that when they first started selling cake mixes most didn't require eggs to be mixed in at all, but the ones that did require them sold way better. apparently women felt they should be "doing" more to make their cakes, and instructing an egg to be beaten into the mix hit that sweet spot between convenience and guilt
ReplyDeleteinteresting take on the history of cake mixes!
ReplyDeletemaybe you should do a taste test of your own, with and without and see which version you prefer?
Awesome! I'm vegan and have always just cooked/baked from scratch so far but I was looking for an easy recipe to throw together! Thank you! I had 7-up on hand as well as a Lemon cake mix and used apple sauce as you suggested. They're still in the oven but sure look good already! ;)
ReplyDeleteI made these cupcakes yesterday, and while they tasted good, when I took them out of the oven after baking them for 20 minutes, they kinda started sinking in a little. I watched them bake and it looked like they were rising very well. Any thoughts or ideas? I would like to make these again.
ReplyDeleteMaybe they were a little undercooked in the middle? Did you try the toothpick test (should come out clean)? I do find that cakes made without egg can be more fragile, so needs a little extra care in handling and frosting.
Deletecan i do this with a whie cake mix
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried white cake mix but I imagine it should turn out similar to the yellow one if you use apple sauce and sprite. Let me know how it turns out!
DeleteWhat is a good icing to use on the different cakes? Like what flavor for applesauce, banana, or sweet potatoes?
ReplyDeleteGood question! I would suggest pairing lighter flavors such as lemon, vanilla, or strawberry with the applesauce, while keeping stronger ones to mix with banana, such as chocolate or coconut. The sweet potato could use a less sweet frosting such as dark chocolate. Let me know what combinations have worked for you!
DeleteWhat to mix for red velvet cake?
ReplyDeleteI just made this last night. I used the Duncan Hines Devils Food Cake (chocolate) with applesauce and sprite. They took way longer to cook that what the box said but they turned out so delicious! Thanks for the tip!!
ReplyDeleteim so happy I found this recipe!!! so much cheaper. im making my niece's wedding cake.
ReplyDeletedo you know if top tier can be frozen for 1st. year anniversary?
Do you still put in the oil???
ReplyDelete