Zero-Waste Vegan Baking: Recipes and Sustainable Tools

Freya has published a book. Simply Vegan Baking is a book by former Great British Bake-off contestant Freya, 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:

Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (keep fresh dough away from children and pets). Bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures. It’s okay to put them in food waste bins (made into biogas).

Before recycling cans, rinse then remove lids (pop ring-pulls over holes). Then use your fingers/thumb to ‘pinch’ inner rims together, to avoid wildlife getting trapped. 

Recipes include:

• Lemon Rum Cake (above)
• Oat Cookies
• Bakewell Tart
• Carrot Cake
• Banoffee Pie Slices
• Lemon Meringue Pie
• Cinnamon Rolls
• Salted Caramel Cupcakes
• Vegan Chocolate Orange Cake
• Black Forest Gateau

Vegan Baking Made Simple offers 50 recipes for incredible bakes and no-bakes. All simple-to-make, with affordable ingredients.

Saloni Mehta is a pastry chef and food photographer. She divides her time between Chicago (US) and Dubai (United Arab Emirates).

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

Freyas vegan baking mixes

There are only a few brands on sale that are both vegan and without palm oil, so it may be easier to learn how to bake your own. But if you do wish to buy them (or need to buy some for wholesale), there are better brands.

Freyas is a small brand of vegan baking mixes, created by the author of the book Simply Vegan Baking (a former Bake-off contestant, she’s a Yorkshire lass!) There are four mixes that are all easy to make and bake. Two are for cookies, one is for sticky toffee pudding, but the final one is for lemon drizzle cake (England’s favourite!)

Recycle packaging at supermarket bag bins, or with council.

Why choose vegan baking mixes?

Nearly all baking mixes in stores have animal ingredients, likely from factory farms. Although it’s good to bake your own cakes, if you don’t want to – this is the best brand around!

Silicone Bread Loaf Tins 

You can also buy these alongside the matching silicone bread and loaf tins, in space-saving designs that collapse down after use. They’re also good for making layered tortes and homemade pizza.

WAFE Reusable silicone baking tools are good to replace disposable parchment paper, and you can them for ovens to catch oil drips, then wipe clean and toss in the dishwasher, to use again.

Silicone baking tools

These pretty pink silicone cupcake cases and baking mats are sold together as a bundle, for all your baking needs. Made from platinum silicone, they are reusable alternatives to single-use parchment and foil.

Heat-resistant up to 240 degrees C, they require no oil or butter, your cookies or cakes will just slide off!Easy to clean by hand or on in the dishwasher, you can also use the mat as a chopping board. different spoons).

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! Use with vegan butters with no palm oil (Flora and Lurpak in the UK, or Miyoko’s in the US). Doves Farm has simple homemade vegan pastry recipes (keep fresh dough away from childre and pets).

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.

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.

Plastic-free vegan biscuits with no palm oil

Rhythm 108 is a Swiss brand of biscuits that are 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

There are only a few brands on sale that are both vegan and without palm oil, so it may be easier to learn how to bake your own. But if you do wish to buy them (or need to buy some for wholesale), here are better brands.

Recycle packaging at supermarket bag bins, if your kerbside doesn’t recycle.

Why choose palm-oil-free biscuits?

Most store-bought biscuits are made with palm oil, its use is destroying the habitats of orangutans and other endangered creatures in Borneo and Indonesia. There is no need to use it (it’s simply put in products because it’s cheaper than supporting our farmers with rapeseed oil). Read more on reasons to avoid palm oil.

Greenepace says the phrase ‘sustainable palm oil’ is as useful as a chocolate teapot. The RSPO is just a self-policed organisation, and has no sustainability credentials, to protect forests from logging.

So if you are looking for a pack of biscuits to hand around, this is one of the better brands to choose.