Dairy and egg-free baking

Sponge cakes

Making a good dairy-free sponge cake without eggs is one of the most difficult vegan cakes to master. The role of egg in a sponge recipe is to bind the ingredients together, and it needs to be replaced to stop your sponge from turning into a tough inedible disaster. Tony Bishop Weston from the Vegan Society recommends a number of ingredients that can be used as egg replacements. He says, "Cocoa butter, xantham gum, agar agar, arrowroot, locust bean gum, carob, vegetarian gelatine, vegan egg replacer, soya flour, banana, potato flour or chocolate all work well".

Carole Thurlbeck is a chef at St Donats Castle restaurant in Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales who has experimented with baking for vegans for several years. She explains the secret behind getting a vegan cake to rise. "I replace the butter with a good soya margarine, then, to help the cake rise, I add an extra teaspoon of baking powder. To replace the eggs, I use a variety of ingredients, from an egg replacer - which you can easily get from health food shops - to a mashed-up banana or silken tofu," she says.

The trick to getting a sponge cake to rise is to mix the wet ingredients before gently folding in the dry ingredients to keep air in the mixture. This recipe for macadamia nut sponge cake uses this technique, and, once it's cooked and chilled, will keep for a few days in the fridge. You can buy soya cream cheese in tubs from most health food shops and some large supermarkets.

• Macadamia nut and coconut sponge cake with lime cream cheese topping

This delicious chocolate cake uses the silken tofu method to bind the ingredients:

• Moist chocolate crumb cake

Chocolate

If you think of vegan chocolate cake you probably think of carob, which is generally used to give a creamy flavour. But good quality cocoa powder and most 70% cocoa solids dark chocolates are vegan too, and will give your baking that unmistakably naughty chocolate flavour.

These brownies are deceptively simple - just pack the mixture into one tin and bake. The recipe is also incredibly versatile; either bake the brownies as they are, or add your own special ingredients, such as chunks of good quality dark chocolate, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts or glacé cherries. If you want to make a chocolate fudge cake, simply make two lots of the brownie mixture and sandwich them together with a dollop of fudgy chocolate icing. Spread the remaining icing on top of the cake, and finish with curls of dark chocolate.

• Chocolate brownies
• Chocolate fudge icing

If you want something extra special, perhaps for a birthday cake, try this Black Forest gâteau which is as light as air. You can substitute the carob powder for cocoa powder if you wish.

• Black Forest chocolate cake

Cookies and flapjacks

Cookies, biscuits and flapjacks are virtually foolproof, as they don't require eggs and the butter can easily be substituted with soya fat.

Try these healthy seed cookies, made with with soya fat, wholemeal flour and seeds high in omega-3. They’re a delicious addition to any lunchbox or perfect for munching at work.

• Seed cookies

These deliciously soft cookies are stuffed with dark chocolate chunks and macadamia nuts. You can substitute the chocolate and nuts for anything you fancy, but make sure the mixture isn't too wet, otherwise you will end up with one enormous flat biscuit.

• Chocolate and macadamia nut cookies

You can buy the carob powder used in these cookies in a good health food shop, but you can also substitute it with quality cocoa powder. They're temptingly soft and it's impossible to eat only one.

• Chocolate chip cookies

These are the easiest of all vegan baking, you simply melt the margarine and add oats and sugar. Just make sure you don't over-cook them, as they will rapidly go brown around the edges. Cut them into squares in the tin as soon as they're out of the oven.

• Vegan flapjacks

Scones

Scones are incredibly easy to make without dairy ingredients as they don't require any eggs. To get that perfect shiny finish on your scone, simply brush some soya milk over the top. You can add extra ingredients to these scones - two handfuls of sultanas are a traditional favourite, but you can also try walnuts, macadamia nuts, hazelnuts, glacé cherries or chunks of dark chocolate. Chocolate scones are delicious warmed in the oven and then smeared with soya margarine; the chocolate melts and it feels very decadent. For a healthier scone, swap some of the plain white flour for plain wholemeal, according to taste.

• Vegan scones

Pastry

It's very easy to make simple sweet shortcrust pastry without using butter, just substitute soya margarine. This recipe can be used as soon as it's made, or kept in the fridge for up to a day wrapped in cling film. The addition of icing sugar will help the pastry roll out smoothly, without breaking up. The texture is exactly the same as an all-butter pastry, it should be light and will cut easily.

• Basic vegan sweet shortcrust pastry

Tips for successful baking

• Butter gives cakes flavour, so remember that you will need to replace this with an alternative flavour source. Try extracts such as vanilla, almond or caramel, all available from your local supermarket. Tony Bishop Weston recommends adding lemon or lime zest to give your baking a fantastic tangy taste.
• You can experiment with all sorts of baking recipes. If a recipe calls for yoghurt or milk, substitute it with a soya or rice yoghurt - the texture of the cake will be slightly heavier and more fudgy.
• Carole Thurlbeck suggests adding a carton of a soya dessert to your cake batter to give your cakes extra flavour. It will also help it bind together. Experiment with all sorts of soya desserts from your local health food shop.
• Tony Bishop Weston advises against making the mistake of adding too much baking powder in order to get your cakes to rise - it will end up giving a nasty taste and will stick to your teeth!
• Try using oils instead of soya fat to create a moister cake, but remember olive oil has a very dominant flavour.
• If you add soya milk to a recipe, use one that has been sweetened and add a pinch of salt. Cow's milk has a higher sugar and sodium content than dairy-free alternatives. The salt will give the flavour of your baking some depth.
• Carole Thurlbeck says her top tip is to start experimenting. "Even if you don't get it right the first time and it doesn't rise, it'll still taste fantastic. You don't have to be a vegan or be dairy-intolerant to enjoy the different tastes you can create by using alternative ingredients."