Learn to Bake Your Own Vegan Cakes & Biscuits!
from Simply Vegan Baking
Rather than buying plastic-wrapped expensive ready-made cakes and bakes, it’s good to learn how to bake your own sweet treats, for special occasions. There are many baking books on the market but most (including many vegan ones) tend to be too complicated, with long lists of hard-to-find ingredients.
Good food is for everyone, so these books teach you how to create home-made baking treats, using affordable ingredients you can find in any store. Vegan baking is quite the science, so don’t just ‘sub with vegan butter and plant milk’, or you won’t like the results!
Also read our posts on zero waste baking tools, vegan butters (with no palm oil) and homemade pastry recipes (again, to avoid palm oil).
Safe Baking For Everyone
Keep ingredients like nuts away from young children, and keep all sweet treats away from furry friends, due to unsafe ingredients like nuts, chocolate, nutmeg, citrus fruits. Read more on food safety for people and pets (heating any cookware is unsafe near birds).
Due to acids, it’s best to avoid composting citrus fruits, tomatoes, rhubarb and alliums (onion, garlic, leeks, shallots and chives), as they could harm garden creatures (just bin to break down naturally).
If using tinned ingredients, fully remove lids before recycling (or pop ring-pulls back over holes, to prevent curious wildlife getting trapped inside).
Tips for Successful Vegan Baking
England does not live with high enough elevations to worry about adjusting baking times, but do avoid overmixing your batter (or opening the oven too early) and store cooled cakes in an airtight tin (not the fridge) to hold moisture, to your cakes and bakes last longer.
Doves Farm is a good brand of organic and gluten-free flours, sold in shops and online. The range includes natural baking powders and quick yeasts.
If you like baking your own cakes or cookies, ready-made pastry contains animal ingredients and nearly always palm oil (unsustainable use is harming habitats of orangutans and other endangered creatures). And is packed in plastic.
This homemade vegan pastry (Doves Farm) makes enough for one large pie (top and base) or 24 small tarts. Wrap and freeze leftovers in eco clingfilm alternative.
Keep fresh dough away from young children and pets, as it can expand in the stomach. Many other ingredients (salt, garlic, onion) are unsafe near animal friends. Read more on food safety for people and pets.
For flavoured pastry, bin allium scraps (onion, garlic, shallot, leeks, chives) as like tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps, acids could harm compost creatures.
Use a vegan butter with no palm oil (Flora is a good brand). Baking blocks are better than margarine, as you can cube them chilled, for a better crumb. Use with Doves Farm or another artisan flour, natural sea salt and a little water.
Don’t knead pastry dough, this builds too much gluten, and creates tough pastry.
For gluten-free diets, coconut flour pastry recipe (Doves Farm) is made with ground almonds (more flaky, so press dough into a quiche dish).
Find coconut flour in health shops, and use organic European almonds for better ethics (some almonds use farming practices that harm bees). Most gluten-free baking recipes use xanthan gum.
How to Freeze and Thaw Homemade Vegan Pastry
Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap securely in eco clingfilm alternative, label with the date, and freeze for up to 3 months.
When ready to use, thaw overnight in the fridge, and let the dough sit at room temperature (covered with a plate to stop it drying out) for 15 to 20 minutes. It should then be soft enough to roll out.
Homemade Vegan Puff Pastry Recipe
Puff pastry is good for making savoury dishes like:
Northern Dough Co does make palm-oil-free pizza doughs and ready-made dough balls, if you want to cheat! Recycle packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your kerbside does not recycle.
Simple Vegan Baking Recipes by a Yorkshire Lass!
Simply Vegan Baking is a fun book by the first vegan contestant on Great British Bake-off. This Yorkshire lass is on a mission to show how familiar recipes can be made without eggs, dairy or butter.
From simple cakes and traybakes and bread to desserts and showstopping cakes, the faff-free recipes include many traditional favourites like:
- Oat Cookies
- Bakewell Tart
- Carrot Cake
- Banoffee Pie Slices
- Lemon Meringue Pie
- Cinnamon Rolls
- Salted Caramel Cupcakes
Plus lots of chocolate recipes!
- Vegan Chocolate Orange Cake
- Black Forest Gateau
- White Choc Raspberry Blondies
- Vegan Choc Chip Brookies
- Triple Chocolate Cookies
Freya has recently released a smashing range of ready-to-use vegan baking mixes for all your favourites (sticky toffee pudding and lemon drizzle cake!)
Free from palm oil, just mix with oat milk and vegan butter. Recycle packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your kerbside does not recycle.
50 Simple Vegan Baking Recipes for Beginners
Vegan Baking Made Simple offers 50 recipes for incredible bakes and no-bakes. All simple-to-make, with affordable ingredients.
Learn to make:
- Banana Streusel Cake
- Earl Grey Blackberry Cupcakes
- Salted Caramel & Pear Cake
- Almond Raspberry Thumbprint Cookies
- Pumpkin Caramel Cupcakes
- Coconut Pineapple Layer Cake
- Blueberry ‘cream cheese’ Bread
- Almond Chocolate Cupcakes
Saloni Mehta is a pastry chef and food photographer. She divides her time between Chicago (US) and Dubai (United Arab Emirates).
The Little Book of Vegan Bakes
The Little Book of Vegan Bakes is a highly-reviewed book of fabulous simple recipes. Beautifully presented, this book is packed with traditional flavours that you love. From simple cakes to showstopping desserts!
Recipes include:
- Victoria Sponge
- Vegan Lemon Meringue Pie
- Peanut Butter Flapjacks
- Mixed Berry Parcels
- Cherry Bakewell Tartlets
- Chocolate Orange Fridge Cake
- Doughnuts
- Sticky Toffee Pudding
- Gingerbread Loaf
- Chocolate Lava Cakes
Seriously, Holly knows how to bake anything and everything you can think of. Her creations are stunning and absolutely delicious. She is my go-to when it comes to sweet treats. Lauren Toyota
Holly Jade is a young baker, who learned how to create nutritious foods, after suffering from food intolerances. She now has many fans, also known for her natural beauty tips.
A Book of No-Bake Vegan Desserts & Cakes
No-Bake Vegan Desserts is a stunning book by a classically-trained Irish chef. From fancy cakes to plant-based versions of banoffee pie and tiramisu, everything is beautifully made and photographed.
Avoid raw (unpasteurised) recipes for children, pregnancy/nursing and low immunity.
Learning to make raw desserts and cakes is not just good to save one energy bills, but they tend to be easier to find re ingredients, as they are made with fruits, nuts and seeds, rather than flours etc.
Recipes include:
- Peanut Butter Cookies
- Pistachio Cake
- Pistachio Ice Cream
- Snickers Bars
- Wagon Wheels
Christina Leopold is a classically-trained Irish chef and baker, who specialises in raw desserts, cakes and bakes.
Amazing (Raw) Dessert & Cake Recipes
The Art of Raw Desserts is a stellar collection of amazing recipes by raw chef Crystal Bonnet. You’ll learn how to make perfect raw creamy chocolates using the freezer or dehydrator.
Recipes in this amazing book include:
- Apricot Pecan Butternut Cake
- Hazelnut Praline Tarts
- Apple Crumble Caramel Cheesecake
- Mango Berry Crepes
- Pecan Pie with Rosemary & Orange
- Banana Cream Pie with Gingerbread Crust
- Chocolate Mousse Cake
- Double-Choc Red Velvet Brownies
- Three-Layer Tiramisu
- Mocha Donuts with Espresso Glave
- Blackberry Ginger Lime Cheesecake
- Tropical Lime Coconut Cakes
Crystal Bonnet is one of the world’s top raw dessert chefs. Based in Canada, she is a graduate of a classical culinary academy and the Pure Joy Academy.
If you bake your own plant-based cakes and cookies, you’ll likely want to invest in a few baking tools like baking trays and oven gloves. But it’s good to avoid ones with Teflon or cheap aluminium coatings.
Spend a little money on a few well-chosen eco alternatives, for years of happy baking! Also read our posts on vegan butters (with no palm oil) and homemade pastry recipes (again, to avoid palm oil).
Safe Baking For Everyone
Keep ingredients like nuts away from young children, and keep all sweet treats away from furry friends, due to unsafe ingredients like fresh dough, nuts, chocolate, nutmeg, citrus fruits. Read more on food safety for people and pets (heating any cookware is unsafe near birds).
If using these baking pans for roast potatoes, don’t give leftovers to pets, garden birds or wildfowl due to salt (toxic) – fat can also smear on feathers, affecting waterproofing and insulation.
Due to acids, it’s best to avoid composting citrus fruits, tomatoes, rhubarb and alliums (onion, garlic, leeks, shallots and chives), as they could harm garden creatures (just bin to break down naturally).
If using tinned ingredients, fully remove lids before recycling (or pop ring-pulls back over holes, to prevent curious wildlife getting trapped inside).
You Only Need a Few Baking Tools
Even when you find good quality items, you don’t have to buy everything but the kitchen sink! Carefully choose the items you need, and leave the rest on the shelf. Quality items cost more to last years, so buying the whole nine yards would cost a fortune.
Once bought, wash items by hand, and cool before rinsing (to avoid thermal cracks). Use with non-scratch utensils and remove stains by soaking items in a mix of 2 tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda and 1 cup white cleaning vinegar for 30 minutes.
Sasstainable Silicone Baking Tools
Sasstainable Silicone Baking Mat is made from platinum silicone, a reusable alternative to baking paper, parchment and foil. Heat-resistant up to 240 degrees C, it requires no oil or butter, your cookies just slide off.
Easy to clean by hand or on in the dishwasher, you can also use this as a chopping board. Buy alongside the silicone cupcake cases as a baking bundle.
Joseph Joseph Baking Tools
Joseph Joseph offers a wide range of quality baking tools, just choose the few that suits your kitchen needs. Designed to save space with clever nesting designs, choose from baking trays, cake and loaf tins or muffin trays, made with heavy gauge carbon steel, with easy-pull handles for better grip.
Free from the usual toxic coatings, these carry 10-year guarantees, and can be bought as sets, to save money.
The measuring cups/spoons are ideal for American recipes (which most vegan baking books use). The innovative range includes an adjustable measuring spoon (just slide the handle to measure wet or dry ingredients, to save different spoons).
You can also find and measuring cups (plus mixing bowls and juicers/reamers) in nesting designs, for small spaces.
The oven gloves are easy-grip with heat-resistant silicone tips to handle hot pots and pans. They include separate compartments for your index finger, to enhance dexterity and control.
Do not use when damp or wet and avoid contact with naked flame or heating element. If laundered, use a microfiber filter.
Everyone loves a nice biscuit or two, with a cup of tea! And considering they are very quick and easy to make (and store well for a few days in a biscuit tin), it’s surprising that more people don’t bake their own.
These jammy biscuits (The Veg Space) are like homemade versions of jammy dodgers. The homemade shortbread is filled with quality cherry jam. They’re nice served with vegan vanilla ice-cream or as a Christmas snack at the table.
Read our post on zero waste baking tools.
Keep these biscuits away from young children (due to nuts and seeds) and away from pets (due to nuts, dried fruits, citrus, nutmeg and chocolate). For the same reason, don’t give leftovers to garden birds or wildfowl.
Just bin citrus peel, as acids could harm compost creatures.
Nothing weird here, these recipes are shared from favourite food bloggers around the world. All of them are plant-based with natural wholesome ingredients, super-affordable and quick to bake. Master your favourites, and you’ll never go back to plastic-wrapped store-bought biscuits!
Why Bake Wholesome Vegan Biscuits?
As well as containing natural animal-kind ingredients, vegan biscuits have zero cholesterol, and you can also control your own ingredients (by swapping and subbing, and reducing fat content if needed for health reasons, or if you are trying to lose weight).
You can even add in nutritious ingredients like applesauce and nuts, and oats of course are full of fibre, and a great way to reduce ‘bad’ cholesterol.
You can also use plant milks for lower fat and calories, whole wheat flour for more fibre, and dates or fruit as natural sweeteners (and binders).
We’ve carefully chosen these recipes, to be super-tasty (you don’t eat biscuits for health reasons!) Everything on our site is designed to be simple and affordable.
That does mean that the most popular flavours for English biscuits are mostly not included, as to make them is not that simple (Maryland cookies, Jaffa cakes, custard creams, malted milk, bourbons, shortbread, hob nobs and chocolate digestives).
But rather than try to replicate existing flavours, the biscuits below do take some of these flavours and morph them into new simple affordable baking pleasures, for your biscuit tin!
Oatmeal Raisin Biscuits
Oatmeal Raisin Biscuits (Rainbow Nourishments) are likely the healthiest, and you can also make them without raisins, if preferred. You’ll need Flora vegan block butter (no palm oil), raisins, brown sugar, maple syrup and optional walnuts, for this recipe.
Anthea’s Anzac Cookies are an Aussie take on our humble oatmeal biscuit, with a lot more oats, and a hint of caramel and tropical coconut.
Peanut Butter Biscuits
3-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies (Rainbow Nourishments) are simple to make, just be sure to choose an organic brand of peanut butter without palm oil. These biscuits use almond flour (sold in health shops) to replicate buttery texture, sweetened with maple syrup.
The only other ingredients you need are maple syrup and almond flour (almond flour is easy to make (or choose European-sourced for better sustainability, to protect bees!)
Chocolate Chip Biscuits
These chocolate chip biscuits (Cookie + Kate) are amazing! You don’t need vegan butter for this recipe, as they are made with neutral-flavoured oil, mixed with whole wheat flour, sugar, baking agents and chopped vegan chocolate. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt.
Swiss Vegan Biscuits (no palm oil in plastic-free packs)
Rhythm 108 is a Swiss brand that is vegan, free from palm oil and sold in plastic-free packaging (the wholesale individually-wrapped biscuits are ideal for cafes and restaurants, to serve alongside drinks). Flavours include:
- Coconut Crunch
- Lemon Ginger Chia
- Salted Caramel
- Hazelnut Chocolate Praline
- Hazelnut Chocolate Chip
- Double Chocolate Hazelnut
- Chocolate Peanut Butter
