Most recipes will tell you to mix your dry ingredients in one bowl and your wet ingredients in another but is that really necessary? The thought of having extra cleaning to do when it's not super necessary makes the idea of just tossing all ingredients in one bowl appealing but, let me tell you, there's a time to get creative in the kitchen and this is NOT it. Vegan baking is all about the chemistry so if the recipe is telling you to mix the ingredients separately, it's because those ingredients need to react to each other in a certain order. Watch the video to see my explanation on why this matters. So yea, you'll have one more bowl to...
Eggs are a staple in baking so I often get asked what the best substitute would be when baking without them. The answer is that it depends on what you’re baking. There are a lot of options out there and each has their own benefits and disadvantages. Here’s a breakdown: Vinegar and Baking Soda Best for: cakes, cupcakes and muffins Benefit: gives the bake a great rise and keeps it moist Disadvantage: does not work well as a binding agent, adds liquid to a recipe My personal favorite for baking cakes, this combination will give you a nice rise and fluffy texture to your bake. It’s all in the chemistry: the acidity in the vinegar reacts with the baking soda...
You baked your cookies and they came out an oily greasy mess. Urgh, what an awful feeling! If you've had this happen to you, odds are you made one of two mistakes: either you didn't allow the ingredients to thoroughly mix during the creaming process or you didn't allow the dough to rest enough before baking. Watch the video below to see how both these mistakes happen and how to fix them. And if all this talk of cookies has you craving some, you can get my recipe for the perfect vegan chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, shortbread and sugar cookies in my latest eBook Vegan Baking 101: A Beginner's Guide to Veganizing Dessert Staples. You can buy it here....
There is certainly no shortage of options out there but my personal favorite is Earth Balance’s Soy Free Spread. Now, just to be clear, this is not a paid advertisement. I just love the product. I’ve been using Earth Balance since I first went vegan almost a decade ago because: 1) it tastes like real butter, 2) it looks like real butter, 3) (and most importantly) it acts like real butter. That means it melts in the way the real stuff would and combines with melted chocolate like the real stuff would. I use it for all of my recipes at the Curious Cat Bakery that require butter so that includes everything from buttercream to cookies to caramel and sweet...
As the founder of a vegan bakery that specializes in making treats you could never tell are vegan, I get asked A LOT of questions about vegan baking so I thought I’d start answering some of those here on the blog on a segment I call “Ask a Vegan Baker.” I know, super creative, but it’s self explanatory! Today’s question: what is the secret to the perfect chocolate cake? As a lover of all things chocolate, this one is very close to my heart. The answer is pretty simple: the perfect chocolate cake is not overly sweet. A lot of chocolate cakes out there can be hurt-your-face-sweet and that is not good. All the chocolate cakes at the Curious Cat...
