Do you have tried-and-tested baking recipes that you love, but that contain dairy when you need to bake for a non-dairy eating friend / family? Have you tried substituting ingredients in the past, but the recipe has ended disastrously?
Rest easy, I’ve been in this position for years, working for clients who demand a recipe / product that tastes the same as before, but that can be proven “free from”. I have tested a bunch of different plant-based spreads, oils and solid fat blocks trying to find that holy grail of “you just can’t tell there’s no cow!”
The below tips are a result of many failed recipes, but several brilliant substitution solutions…and I hope they make your life a ton easier, whether you’re baking for a kid with a lactose intolerance, or a new vegan friend.
Let me know how you go!
Substituting dairy out of baking recipes
-
- For crunchy sugar cookies and gooey cookie recipes, I like to use a vegetable fat “block” that is solid in the fridge, as a direct replacement for cows milk butter. Gram-for-gram, you can do a straight swap. Look for a plant-based fat that is a mixture of different fats, e.g., shea butter, rapeseed oil, coconut fat. Some brands I’ve come across that are good are: Naturli (Europe and UK), Stork baking block (UK), Melt butter sticks, or Earth Balance buttery sticks (USA and Canada).
- With a sponge cake recipe, substituting dairy out could not be easier. Use a mixed vegetable spread (margarine), that is spreadable at room temperature. A blend of fats (e.g. sunflower, rapeseed oil and soya), work better than single ingredient spreads (e.g., soya only) in my experience.

- Try adding a small pinch of salt to sweet recipes – often butter made with cows milk is processed with salt, so this helps to reproduce the flavour you’re used to.
- I’ve found that soya or oat milk can often be a straight swap for cows milk in recipes like pancakes and scones / American biscuits.
- For a trustworthy vanilla ‘butter’cream or frosting, try my recipe, below. This recipe uses two different types of solid plant fat – one yellow in colour, and one white, more of a shortening than margarine. It makes enough to layer and ice the top of an 8 inch round cake, like this lovely vanilla sponge cake, that happens to be dairy free:

A reliable vanilla ‘butter’cream icing
Makes enough to fill and top a round 8 inch 2 layer sponge.
Ingredients:
- 125 g white coloured solid vegetable baking fat e.g. Crisco or Trex, at room temperature
- 125 g solid dairy free baking block e.g., Naturli or Stork, at room temperature.
- 300 g icing sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla bean extract
Method:
Using a food mixer or lots of bicep power, mix the two fats together until you have a smooth paste with no lumps. Add in the vanilla, then icing sugar in two goes, beating until smooth. If the mixture is too thick, add in a tbsp. at a time of a pale or white plant milk e.g. Good Hemp or Oatly.
Enjoy!
-Bee
PS For an easy peasy simple, one bowl vanilla cake that’s made without cows’ milk butter, try my recipe here: https://babyccinokids.com/blog/2019/07/03/vegan-vanilla-sponge-cake-recipe/
Comments (1)
Lovely suggestions, thank you!