Substitutions for Common Baking Ingredients

Have you ever gotten everything ready to bake or cook something, and sometimes you may have even started mixing it all together and the recipe says the one thing you just ran out of yesterday. It's frustrating. You're elbow deep in batter and you don't want to go to the store to get 1 thing! In my case, my husband takes the car for the day, so I can't go anywhere. I can wait for Joe to come home and I'll ask him on the way home to grab whatever, but that's a long time from now! So, not only can this be a reference for you but mostly me, so I can remember from now on!

Allspice – 1 teaspoon

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon plus 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves.

Baking Powder – 1 teaspoon

• ·         1/3 tsp. baking soda plus 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
• ·         1/4 teaspoon baking soda plus 1/2 cup yogurt or buttermilk (decrease liquid in recipe by 1/2 cup)

Bread Crumbs (Dry) – 1 cup

• ·         3 slices of bread, crumbled.

Brown sugar, packed, 1 cup

• ·         1 cup granulated sugar mixed with 2 Tbsp molasses or dark corn syrup

Butter – 1 cup

• ·         1 cup of regular margarine
• ·         1 cup of vegetable shortening (for baking)
• ·         1 cup of oil (but only if melted butter is called for)

Buttermilk – 1 cup

• ·         1 tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar plus enough regular milk to make 1 cup (let sit for 5 minutes)
• ·         1 cup Plain Yogurt

Chocolate

• ·         Semisweet baking, 1 oz

o    1 oz unsweetened baking chocolate plus 1 Tbsp sugar

• ·         Semisweet chips, 1 cup

o    6 oz semisweet baking chocolate, chopped

• ·         Unsweetened baking, 1 oz,

o    3 Tbsp baking cocoa plus 1 Tbsp vegetable oil or melted shortening or margarine

Cream / Half and Half – 1 cup

• ·         7/8th of a cup of whole milk plus 1/2 tablespoon of butter
• ·         3 tablespoons of oil, plus enough milk for 1 cup
• ·         1 cup of evaporated milk

Cocoa – 1/4th cup

• ·         1 ounce (square) chocolate (decrease butter/oil in recipe by 1/2 a tablespoon)

Condensed Milk – 1 cup

• ·         Heat 1/3 cup of evaporated milk, 3/4 cup of sugar, and 2 tablespoons of butter until dissolved.

Cornstarch (for thickening) – 1 tablespoon

• ·         2 tablespoons of flour (must cook for at least 3 minutes longer to thicken)
• ·         4 tsp quick-cooking tapioca

Corn syrup

• ·         Light, 1 cup

o    1 cup granulated sugar plus 1/4 cup water

• ·         Dark, 1 cup

o    1 cup light corn syrup; 3/4 cup light corn syrup plus 1/4 cup molasses; 1 cup maple-flavored syrup

Egg – 1 whole egg

• ·         1/4th cup of egg beaters
• ·         2 tablespoons of mayonnaise (for baking batters only)
• ·         1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds and 3 tablespoons water (or other liquid). Stirred until gelatinous. 
• ·         1 tsp of baking powder and 3 tbsp of natural applesauce, mixed

Flour (All-Purpose) – 1 cup

• ·         1/2 cup whole wheat flour plus 1/2 cup of all purpose flour (don’t substitute more than 1/2 the flour)
• ·         All-purpose, 1 cup

o    1 cup and 2 Tbsp Cake Flour

• ·         Cake, 1 cup

o    1 cup minus 2 Tbsp All Purpose

• ·         Self Rising, 1 cup

o    1 cup All Purpose flour plus 1 ½ baking powder and ½ tsp salt

• ·         The following alternatives require more leavening, so add 2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder per cup of flour.  Also recommended, use buttermilk and 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda instead of milk to decrease heaviness.

o    3/4 cup rice flour

o    1 1/2 cups of oat flour

o    1 1/4 cups of rye flour

o    5/8 cup of potato starch flour

o    1 cup rolled oats

o    1 cup fine cornmeal

Lemon Juice, fresh, 1 Tbsp

• ·         1 Tbsp bottled lemon juice
• ·         1 Tbsp White Vinegar

Lemon Peel, grated, 1 tsp

• ·         1 tsp dried lemon peel

Milk, 1 cup

• ·         ½ evaporated milk plus ½ cup water
• ·         Nonfat dry milk prepared as directed on package
• Plain Yogurt – 1 cup
• ·         1 cup buttermilk
• ·         1 cup cottage cheese (blended smooth)
• ·         1 cup sour cream

Pumpkin or Apple Pie Spice, 1 tsp

• ·         Mix ½ tsp ground cinnamon, ¼ tsp ground ginger, 1/8 tsp ground allspice and 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

Sour Cream, 1 cup

• ·         1 cup plain yogurt

Sugar (Powdered) – 1 cup

• ·         3/4 cup of granulated sugar

Sugar (White) – 1 cup

• ·         1 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
• ·         1 3/4 cups confectioner’s sugar (not for baking)
• ·         3/4 cup maple syrup (reduce liquid in recipe by 3 tablespoons)

Vegetable or Canola Oil: 

• ·         Melted shortening 
• Melted Butter
• Coconut Oil
• Apple sauce (More healthy option as well!) 

Vanilla Extract

• Vanilla beans
• Almond extract
• Vanilla vodka, rum or brandy

Whole Milk – 1 cup

• ·         1 cup buttermilk plus 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda (if baking, reduce baking powder by 2 teaspoons)
• ·         1/4 cup nonfat dry milk , 7/8 cup of water, and 2 teaspoons of butter

Yeast, regular or quick active dry, 1 pkg

• ·         2 ¼ tsp regular or quick active dry
• ·         1 package compressed cake yeast

Sources:
Betty Crocker
Yahoo
Yahoo
Yummly

I'm addicted to Pinterest!

I really, really am! I could spend HOURS pinning. If you don't know what pinning is, I'll tell you. Pinterest is an online pin board. I personally have so many websites bookmarked so that I can later do/cook/ refer back to them, but I always forget about them. Out of sight, out of mind! BUT with pinterest you can take any photo on a website and pin it into one of your 'folders'. For example, on my pinterest board (you can follow my boards by clicking the pinterest sign on the right hand column) I have 26 boards, all different categories. I have my photos that I pin from this blog, called Cupcake Apothecary, I have foods I want to cook and bake, Awesome ideas and tips, Christmas ideas, etc, etc, etc.
So do I sit around and just pin? Hell no! I actually do the things I see on pinterest; here are some things I have done:

Beach-y Salt  Hair Spray

Where I live the water is SO HARD! As I have naturally curly hair (Yes, thats me in the photo) and the water here was deteriorating it! But with a few tips, I brought my hair back to life, including the salt spray.

1. Lanza Sun and Swim Shampoo and Conditioner.

It is for people who swim a lot or have hard water. 

 2. Vinegar rinse. 

After I shampoo my hair, I rinse it out with half a glass of water and half a glass of vinegar mixed in. It helps to take out all the crap in your hair, previous hair spray and junk and it helps with the hard water.

 3. Lanza Noni Fruit Detangler and Leave in Conditioner

Once my hair is lightly damp I spray this in my hair, mostly where I have highlights and parts I've bleached.

4. Salt Spray

1 tsp Epsom salt, Few drops olive oil (or Jojoba oil), and 1/4 water (I use distilled water) in a spritzer bottle.

Afterwords my hair comes out nice and curly, as if I was washing my hair in regular water. I know it seems like a lot of work, but this is actually a lot easier than my usual routine of putting 14 different products in it! And if you have curly hair, you know that it takes a lot to keep it nice!

Source: All Natural Annie

Grow Green Onions

Don't throw those away!

I always have 1 or 2 recipes that call for like 2 tbsp at most and then I have to throw the rest away.

Well, place your green onion ends into a glass with water and in a sunny window and they will keep growing! It's amazing! I've already have had to cut them down and freeze some. Every few days I empty out the water and place new water. 

Source: Home Made Serenity 

Memory Jar

I know I don't have many memories in it yet, but it's only the beginning of the year! And there's nothing around to do, but we're trying. Anyways, after the year is up, on New Years Eve, You read them out loud! 

Source: Inchmark

Homemade Dish Washer Detergent

This one I am most proud of! I've recently gotten into a saving money/coupon clipping kick and I noticed how expensive dishwasher detergent can be especially when that detergent doesn't last that long!

So, I tried this and you can compare how amazing it is on my silverware. Like I said, I have hard water and nothing makes them clean-clean. Until now!

I swear I did not tamper with the left knife. I pulled it right out of my silverware drawer. I didn't even know there was some kind of writing on them because they'd come out so foggy! Ok, here is the 'recipe'

1 cup Borax

1 cup Washing Soda

1/2 cup Kosher Salt (I used regular table salt and so did the original resource, and it still worked great)

1/2 cup Citric Acid (double this if you have hard water, which I did, I also used Lemishine)

Basically, mix it all together in a bucket or container. 

Use 1 tbsp each load. 

I use 2, 1 in the open compartment in the dishwasher and 1 in the one that locks and releases during the cycle.

You can find all of these in the detergent aisle.

I also like to use Vinegar in the rinse aid compartment, it works so much better with the hard water and its so much more inexpensive!

Source: Lady with the Red Rocker

Organizing

Sorry, I have no clue what those things are called... Filing racks perhaps? Anyway, if you don't have a lot of room in your kitchen like me, then you'll love this!
Take some mounting tape and stick it to a cabinet, like so.

So amazing! I have another one on the other side holding sandwich baggies as well.

I don't know where I got this idea from, but I know it was on pinterest.