20 substitutes you can use for common baking ingredients

There are many different fats you can use instead of butter. Coconut oil, margarine, lard, or ghee will work, as will some oils, depending on your exact recipe. You may even find that you like using certain substitutes better than you like using butter. 

You’ve probably wondered what the difference is between baking powder and baking soda, and they’re pretty similar. They’re so close, in fact, that if you’re out of baking powder, you can make a cocktail using baking soda and cream of tartar as a substitute. Just be sure to look up the exact measurements so that you don’t ruin whatever you’re baking. 

If you’re out of baking soda, you can use baking powder instead. About four times whatever the recipe calls for will do the trick. Just note that this substitution will change the flavor of whatever you’re baking just a bit, making the acidic flavors more prominent. 

Who doesn’t love a recipe that features honey? If you’re out of honey or don’t have enough time to get it back to its normal state after it’s crystallized, you can opt for another sweetener like corn syrup, molasses, agave, or even maple syrup. 

Unless you bake a lot, you probably don’t keep much powdered sugar around the house. But no worries. Powdered sugar is just finely ground sugar, so you can grind your sugar to a powder using a blender.

If you’re out of sugar, that’s a little tougher to substitute. For some recipes, you can use another sweetener, like honey or any of its substitutes. If sugar isn’t just being used in the recipe for taste, you can use erythritol, xylitol, sucralose, or even Stevia. 

You won’t see cream of tartar in most baking recipes, but it’s pretty important in the ones that call for it — like meringue or macarons. You can use lemon juice as a substitute. 

Buttermilk is a common baking ingredient, but it’s uncommon enough in daily life that you might not have it around. If you’re in a pinch, you can use either a 1:1 substitution of non-Greek yogurt or a 1:1 substitution of milk plus an acid (vinegar or lemon juice will work) to curdle.

If you don’t want to use regular flour, you can use all kinds of flours as a substitute. Almond flour, oat flour, rice flour, buckwheat flour, and more can all be used in place of all-purpose flour.

If you need a substitute for cocoa powder, about any type of chocolate will work. You can also use carob powder, espresso powder, or even powdered hot chocolate mix; just be aware that the flavor might differ a bit. 

Fear not — there are many substitutions for eggs. Mayonnaise, flaxseed and water, applesauce, mashed banana, and yogurt can all replace eggs. However, none of those substitutions will work for whipped egg whites. 

Just about any oil will work as a substitute for vegetable oil when you’re baking. But if you’re totally out of oil, you can use applesauce as a replacement. 

Brown sugar is just sugar and molasses, so if you’re out of brown sugar, you can make your own using those two ingredients. The more molasses you add, the darker it becomes, so you can make both light brown and dark brown sugar. 

In most baking recipes, lemon juice is just doing the work of an acid — stabilizing or activating other ingredients, bringing out flavors, etc. — it’s not typically there to give a recipe a lemony flavor. So, if your recipe calls for lemon juice and you don’t have any, you can use another acid, like apple cider vinegar. 

Half and half is quite easy to substitute, and you are probably more likely to have the ingredients than you are to have half and half. Just use a 1:1 serving of whole milk and heavy cream. 

Now, if you’re out of heavy cream, you can use whole milk and melted butter to make a substitution cocktail. Isn’t baking fun?

If you’re out of whole milk, you can also remedy that. Use skim or low-fat milk and melted butter, and voila, you have whole milk. You can also use milk alternatives such as almond milk, soy milk, coconut milk, or oat milk. 

Sour cream is another baking ingredient that is typically not vital to the flavor of the item. You can substitute plain yogurt, which will do the same job while adding some tang. 

Just as you can use yogurt for sour cream, you can use sour cream for yogurt. Funny how that works. 

A 1:1 substitution of bourbon or rum can be used in place of vanilla extract. And don’t worry about the alcohol content. A small amount won’t hurt most people, and it’ll be non-alcoholic when it’s done baking.