Baking Substitutions
Pick what you are out of and get substitutes ranked best first, with the exact ratio scaled to your amount, what it does to texture, flavor and rise, and where it plainly does not work.
Read as 1 large egg. Every ratio below is scaled to that. Fractions work: 3/4, 1 1/2, ⅔.
Gluten-free-ish means the swap itself contains no wheat. It does not make the recipe around it gluten-free.
This is the question every "best egg substitute" list skips. One egg can be doing four different jobs, and the right replacement depends entirely on which. If you are not sure, look at how many eggs the recipe uses and what else is in it.
Substitutes for 1 large egg
10 shownMethod How these ratios are worked out, and what we will not pretend
Every ratio here is per one unit of the ingredient you picked, then multiplied by the amount you typed. If the ratio is 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed plus 3 tablespoons of water per egg, then three eggs is 3 tablespoons of flaxseed and 9 tablespoons of water, which we show you as ½ cup + 1 tablespoon because that is how a kitchen measures it, not as 9.
The ranking is not alphabetical and it is not a list of everything. Number one is the swap that comes closest to the original in a normal recipe. The ones below it trade something away, and we say what.
Where a figure comes from a weight, it is our own arithmetic on published densities. One cup of powdered sugar is 120 g and one cup of granulated is 200 g, so 120 ÷ 200 gives the ½ cup + 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar you blend to replace it. Table salt is 292 g per cup and Diamond Crystal kosher is 145 g, so a teaspoon of table salt is almost exactly 2 teaspoons of Diamond Crystal. Those numbers match the ones in our ingredient weight chart and our grams to cups converter, because all three tools read the same data.
Some substitutions do not exist. Nothing replaces four eggs in a sponge. Nothing under 30% fat whips like heavy cream. Nothing gives you the second, oven-triggered rise of double-acting baking powder. When that is the answer, it is the answer we give, in a red box, instead of a swap that will waste your ingredients.
The four jobs an egg does
Search for an egg substitute and you will be handed the same ten items in the same order regardless of what you are baking. That list is useless without this question first, because an egg is not one ingredient doing one thing.
| Job | How to tell | What works |
|---|---|---|
| Binding | 1 to 2 eggs in cookies, brownies, meatball-style mixes, anything that would crumble | Flax or chia egg, silken tofu, aquafaba |
| Leavening | Eggs beaten before folding, or 3 or more eggs and little other leavener | Aquafaba whipped, or baking soda plus vinegar |
| Moisture | 1 egg in a muffin or quick bread that already has baking powder | Applesauce, mashed banana, yogurt, pumpkin puree |
| Richness | Extra yolks, custards, curds, enriched doughs like brioche | Nothing fully. Add fat and accept a different result |
No The recipes where no egg substitute works
Angel food cake, chiffon, genoise, meringue, macarons, soufflé, pavlova and any sponge built on four or more eggs. In those, the egg is not an ingredient in the batter, it is the structure. The foam of whipped egg protein is the entire scaffold, and it sets in the oven into the crumb itself.
Aquafaba can be whipped into a meringue and it genuinely works for pavlova and macarons with practice, but it is more fragile, weeps sooner and will not carry a four-egg sponge. For those cakes, do not substitute. Find a recipe that was designed without eggs, which will be built on a completely different structure such as aquafaba, vinegar and soda, or a dense oil-based crumb. That is a better use of your afternoon than a flat, rubbery sponge.
The swaps worth memorizing
The dozen that come up most, at the amount recipes normally call for. This is the screenshot.
| Out of | Use | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| 1 cup buttermilk | 1 cup milk + 1 tbsp lemon juice, stand 10 min | Thinner body, same acid |
| 1 cup cake flour | 1 cup all-purpose minus 2 tbsp, + 2 tbsp cornstarch | Slightly coarser crumb |
| 1 cup self-rising flour | 1 cup all-purpose + 1½ tsp baking powder + ¼ tsp salt | None worth mentioning |
| 1 tsp baking powder | ¼ tsp baking soda + ½ tsp cream of tartar | Single-acting, bake at once |
| 1 cup brown sugar | 1 cup granulated + 1 tbsp molasses | None. This is what it is |
| 1 cup powdered sugar | ½ cup + 2 tbsp granulated + ½ tsp cornstarch, blended | Slightly gritty in buttercream |
| 1 cup heavy cream (baking) | ¾ cup milk + ¼ cup melted butter | Will not whip. Ever |
| 1 cup sour cream | 1 cup plain Greek yogurt | Slightly tangier, less fat |
| 1 oz unsweetened chocolate | 3 tbsp cocoa + 1 tbsp butter or oil | Fine in batter, not for coating |
| 1 tbsp cornstarch | 2 tbsp all-purpose flour | Cloudy, needs longer cooking |
| 1 large egg (binding) | 1 tbsp ground flaxseed + 3 tbsp water, rest 5 min | Denser, no lift |
| 1 tsp table salt | 2 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher, or 1¼ tsp Morton | None. Pure density math |
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Questions bakers actually ask
What is the best egg substitute for baking?
There is no single best one, and any list that gives you a winner without asking what the egg is doing is guessing. An egg binds, leavens, adds moisture and adds richness, and each job has a different answer.
For binding in cookies and brownies, a flax egg: 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed plus 3 tablespoons water, rested 5 minutes. For moisture in a muffin that already has baking powder, ¼ cup of unsweetened applesauce. For leavening and anything that needs to be whipped, aquafaba, the liquid from a can of chickpeas, 3 tablespoons per egg. For richness in a custard or an enriched dough, nothing really substitutes, and you are better off finding a recipe built without eggs.
Full detail in our guide to egg substitutes for baking.
Can I substitute anything for heavy cream and still whip it?
Only full-fat coconut cream, and only if you chill the can overnight and use the solid part. Everything else fails for the same reason: whipping works by fat globules linking into a network around air bubbles, and that needs roughly 30% fat or more. Heavy cream is 36% or higher.
Milk plus melted butter is about 30% fat by the numbers but it will still not whip, because the butter fat is not emulsified into microscopic globules any more. It seizes into flecks. That mixture is excellent in ganache, scones, soups and baked custards, and useless in a piping bag.
More on the working swaps in our heavy cream substitute guide.
How do I make buttermilk from regular milk?
Put 1 tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar in a measuring cup, top up to 1 cup with milk, stir once, and leave it for 5 to 10 minutes until it thickens slightly and looks curdled. That is correct, not spoiled.
It does the chemical job perfectly. The acid reacts with baking soda for lift and tenderizes gluten, which is why buttermilk is in pancakes, biscuits and soda bread. What it does not copy is the body. Real cultured buttermilk is thick, so soured milk gives a slightly looser batter. For pancakes, use ¾ cup yogurt thinned with ¼ cup milk instead.
See the buttermilk substitute guide for the dairy-free versions, where soy milk curdles properly and almond milk does not.
What can I use instead of baking powder?
For every 1 teaspoon of baking powder, use ¼ teaspoon baking soda plus ½ teaspoon cream of tartar. That is essentially the recipe for baking powder, mixed fresh.
The honest catch: shop-bought baking powder is double-acting. It releases some gas when it gets wet and the rest when it hits oven heat, which is what lets a batter sit on the counter for ten minutes without going flat. Your homemade version is single-acting. It starts working the moment it is wet, so get it in the oven immediately and do not make the batter ahead.
Our baking powder substitute guide covers the buttermilk and yogurt versions too.
Is brown sugar just white sugar with molasses?
Essentially, yes, and that is exactly how you make it. 1 cup granulated sugar plus 1 tablespoon molasses gives light brown sugar, and 2 tablespoons gives dark. Work it together with a fork or a mixer until no streaks remain, and it will be indistinguishable from the bag.
What you cannot do is leave the molasses out and call it even. Molasses brings moisture, which is why brown sugar cookies are chewy and white sugar cookies are crisp, and it is slightly acidic, so it reacts with baking soda. Swapping white sugar straight in gives a flatter, crisper, paler result. Sometimes that is what you want.
More in our brown sugar substitute guide.
Does homemade cake flour actually work?
Mostly. Take 1 cup of all-purpose flour, remove 2 tablespoons, add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch, then sift the whole thing three times. It genuinely lowers the protein and gives a softer crumb, and in a butter cake or cupcakes you will not be able to tell.
Where it falls short is the very light cakes. Commercial cake flour is not only lower protein, it is milled finer and chlorine-treated, which changes how the starch takes up liquid and lets high-ratio cakes carry more sugar and liquid without collapsing. In angel food or a very tender white cake, the homemade version comes out slightly coarser and a little denser.
Detail in the cake flour substitute guide.
What replaces cornstarch for thickening?
2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour per 1 tablespoon of cornstarch is the everyday answer. Flour has about half the thickening power, clouds the liquid, and needs a couple of minutes of real cooking to lose its raw taste.
Arrowroot and tapioca starch go in at 1:1 and stay glossy and clear, which is better for fruit pie fillings. Arrowroot dislikes dairy and long heat, though, and will thin out if you overcook it or boil it in milk.
See the cornstarch substitute guide for pie fillings specifically, where the choice actually shows.
Are these substitutions safe for allergies?
Use the dietary filters as a starting point, not as a clearance. The filters tell you whether the substitute itself contains dairy, egg or wheat. They cannot tell you what else is in your recipe, and they cannot tell you what is in the specific brand in your cupboard.
"Gluten-free-ish" is deliberately hedged. Swapping cornstarch for flour in one line does not make a cake gluten-free, oats are frequently cross-contaminated unless they are labeled otherwise, and shop-bought baking powder, chocolate and vanilla vary by brand. If someone at your table has celiac disease or a genuine allergy, read the packet, not this page.
Ratios are per single unit and scale with your amount. Weight-derived swaps use the same published densities as our grams to cups converter and ingredient weight chart, so the three tools always agree. Last reviewed August 2026.