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10 things you’ll only understand if you’ve tried vegan baking

Vegan baking seems simple—until your frosting turns to hummus and your banana bread smells like regret.

Food & Drink

Vegan baking seems simple—until your frosting turns to hummus and your banana bread smells like regret.

Vegan baking looks harmless enough.

No butter, no eggs, just plants and vibes. Right?

Until you’re wrist-deep in a flaxseed slurry wondering why your banana bread smells like a gym sock and your frosting has the consistency of hummus.

Here are 10 things you only truly get once you've been initiated into the chaos, creativity, and quiet victories of vegan baking.

1. The science experiment energy is real

Baking is already more science than art.

Vegan baking takes that up a notch.

Now you’re not just measuring flour and sugar—you’re playing mad scientist with chia gels, aquafaba, and agar-agar.

You find yourself Googling, “What’s the protein structure of flaxseed?” at 10:42 p.m.

Not because you're writing a thesis—because you’re trying to make brownies that don’t collapse like a sad flan.

2. Not all plant milks are created equal

You think almond milk is almond milk, until you try to make a custard with it.

Suddenly, oat milk is too sweet, soy milk’s too bean-y, and rice milk’s basically water in disguise.

I’ve ruined more than one batch of frosting with an off-brand almond milk that split the mix like oil and vinegar.

These days, I check the carton like I’m reading a classified document. Stabilizers? Acidity? Carrageenan? We’re doing this right.

3. Banana has beef with everything

Banana is the go-to egg replacer—until it isn’t.

It’s got attitude.

Try putting it in cookies? They puff up like muffin tops.

Use it in a subtle tea cake? Now it’s a banana tea cake.

Banana’s great if you’re baking banana-flavored goods. But the moment you want something neutral, it hijacks the recipe like it owns the place.

4. Aquafaba is magic—and a mild biohazard

The water from a can of chickpeas (a.k.a. aquafaba) can mimic egg whites.

It can make meringue. Marshmallow. Mousse.

It’s magic. But here’s the deal: It smells like wet socks and sadness until you flavor the hell out of it.

The first time I made aquafaba whipped cream, I gagged during prep and then served it like it was the invention of the century.

Spoiler: it kind of is.

5. Everyone wants to know what’s in it—and then judge it

“Oh cool, you made cake! Wait… what’s in it?”

You can see the face change when you say “no eggs, no butter.”

Even before they taste it, they're doing the mental math of how disappointed they should be.

Then they take a bite and say something like, “Oh. It’s actually not bad.”

Which is code for: “I didn’t expect this to be edible.”

6. Texture becomes your Everest

Want it fluffy? Moist? Chewy? Good luck.

With no eggs to bind, no butter to soften, and no cream to fatten—it’s like trying to win a boxing match with one glove.

As noted by Miyoko Schinner, vegan chef and author of The Homemade Vegan Pantry, “Texture is where most vegan baking goes wrong. But when you nail it, it’s unforgettable.”

And she's right.

When you finally get that perfect crumb in a sponge cake made with apple cider vinegar and almond milk, it feels like a full-blown miracle.

7. Your pantry becomes a library of oddities

Psyllium husk. Coconut sugar. Nutritional yeast (don’t ask why).

Tapioca flour, arrowroot powder, blackstrap molasses.

You start collecting powders like a 19th-century apothecary.

Because at some point, something worked in some recipe and now you can’t let it go.

Is half of it expired? Probably. Will you still keep using it? Also yes.

8. You develop trust issues with your oven

Baking time says 35 minutes? Cool.

You start checking it at 22.

Why? Because vegan batters are delicate creatures. They rise fast, fall faster, and burn on a dime.

I’ve had cakes look golden and perfect—only to discover the center is molten goo.

And once you overbake a vegan cookie? Say hello to oatmeal-flavored drywall.

9. The wins feel so much bigger

That moment when your muffins have a dome.

When your cupcakes peel cleanly. When your lemon loaf gets a compliment without a disclaimer.

It’s euphoric.

You remember every failed batch that led to this one. You resist the urge to say, “It’s vegan!” after every compliment.

(You fail. You say it anyway.)

10. It’s not just baking—it’s values in action

This is the part non-vegans often don’t get.

Sure, it’s fun. Sure, it’s messy. But at the end of the day, vegan baking is a small act of alignment.

As noted by Dr. Melanie Joy, author of Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows, “When our actions match our values, we feel more authentic and empowered.”

Vegan baking might seem like a niche hobby, but for a lot of us, it’s one of the ways we live our ethics.

One cookie at a time.

Final thoughts

If you’ve ever dumped a bowl of sad batter into the compost and sworn off baking for a week—only to be back at it three days later, welcome. You’re in the club.

Vegan baking isn’t for the faint of heart.

But it is for the wildly curious, the stubbornly optimistic, and the people who believe dessert can change the world—even just a little.

And hey, if it flops?

There’s always peanut butter straight off the spoon.

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This 90-second quiz reveals the plant-powered role you’re here to play, and the tiny shift that makes it even more powerful.

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Jordan Cooper

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Jordan Cooper is a pop-culture writer and vegan-snack reviewer with roots in music blogging. Known for approachable, insightful prose, Jordan connects modern trends—from K-pop choreography to kombucha fermentation—with thoughtful food commentary. In his downtime, he enjoys photography, experimenting with fermentation recipes, and discovering new indie music playlists.

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