Ingredient swaps to help you save money!

With eggs in short supply and the cost of butter amongst other staple ingredients rocketing over the last year, baking at home has got a little more difficult and a lot more expensive. I remember when it used to be cheaper to bake a basic cake, cookies or scones but now it's about the same price to go out and buy them from the shops.

Here are some ideas for substituting ingredients and alternatives for when you’re trying to stick to a budget or making use of what’s already in the cupboards.

Self-Raising Flour: You can create your own self-raising flour at home, did you know that? Simply add baking powder and regular flour, it's that easy! For the best results use 1 teaspoon for every 100g of flour.

Buttermilk: By mixing milk with lemon or white vinegar and letting it rest for five minutes you can make your own buttermilk at home! Use 235ml of milk and 1 tablespoon of vinegar/lemon juice.

Eggs: If the supermarket's egg shelves are empty you can substitute with flax seeds, aquafaba or chia seeds for the egg. If using flax seeds, prepare a "flax egg" by mixing 1 tablespoon of flax seeds with 3 tablespoons water and letting it sit for five minutes. For the equivalent of one big egg in aquafaba, use 3 tablespoons and for chia seeds, use 1 tablespoons of chia seeds and 2.5 tablespoons of water. 

Butter: Depending on what you have on hand you can substitute butter for apple sauce, avocado, mashed bananas, oil or nut butter. You must ensure that whatever you substitute it with will complement the flavour of your cake. For example, use oil in light flavored sponge cakes like vanilla or Victoria sponge, apple sauce in chocolate cake and nut butter in cookies.

Brown Sugar: If your recipe calls for brown sugar but you only have granulated sugar in the cupboard you can drizzle in 1 tablespoon of black treacle to every 200g of granulated sugar for light brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of black treacle to every 200g of granulated sugar for dark brown sugar.  

Baking Paper: Out of baking paper? Simply swap in aluminium foil for lining cake tins or baking trays! Simple!

Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda): Baking powder can be substituted for bicarbonate of soda in a 1:1 ratio (1/4 teaspoon of baking powder to 1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda). Because baking soda is considerably stronger than baking powder it's important to avoid mixing the two because too much baking soda might give your baked goods a metallic flavour.

Honey: If you’re out of honey but have either maple syrup or agave in the cupboard why not switch them out? These are interchangeable and can be swapped in for each other in most bakes. 

What baking swaps can you recommend?