Getting ready for some holiday baking? It’s always so inconvenient to get in the middle of baking and suddenly find that you have run out of some key ingredient. Here are some substitutions that you can use for those ingredients and avoid that last minute run to the store:
These are the ones I use most often:
Baking powder – for 1 tsp. of baking powder you can use 1/2 tsp. of cream of tartar and 1/4 tsp. baking soda
Buttermilk – for 1 cup of buttermilk, you can substitute 1 T. lemon juice or vinegar and enough milk to bring it up to one cup
Self-rising flour – 1 cup regular all-purpose flour plus 1 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/4 tsp. baking soda
Half and half or light cream – use 1 T. melted butter plus enough whole milk to bring it up to one cup for each cup of half and half or light cream that you need
Unsweetened chocolate – for 1 oz. chocolate you can substitute 3 T. cocoa powder with 1 T. cooking oil or melted shortening
Semi-sweet chocolate – for 1 oz. you can use 3 T. semi-sweet chocolate chips or 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate plus 1 T. sugar
Corn syrup – if you need 1 cup of corn syrup, you can use 1 cup sugar plus 1/4 cup water instead
Milk – instead of 1 cup of milk, you can use 1/2 cup evaporated milk plus 1/2 cup water or 1 cup water mixed with 1/3 cup dry powdered milk
Shortening – for 1/2 cup, you can use 1/2 cup plus 1 T. unsalted butter
Cocoa powder – instead of 3 T. of cocoa powder, you can use 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate. Be sure to reduce the fat in the recipe by 1 T.
Dutch cocoa powder – instead of 3 T., you can use 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate plus 1/8 tsp. baking soda. Again, be sure to reduce the fat in the recipe by 1 T.
For many other substitutions, including ones for herbs and spices and much more, check out these sites:
http://urbanext.illinois.edu/thriftyliving/tl-baking.html
Cyn's View of Reality 
Hi Cyn,
what measurement is 1 T (this is for the benefit of us on the other side of the water) as our measurements are a bit different from those in the U.S
Oh sorry…I should start including those especially since Canada “supposedly” uses the metric system now. I say supposedly because although we use it for distance on the highways, purchasing gas at gas stations, our temperatures in weather reports and so on, I still find that most recipes are used in the old Imperial system. 1 tsp. = 5 ml, 1 T. = 15 ml, 1 c. = 240 ml (Those are the ones I have memorized. In school here they don’t teach conversions anymore…simply metric so the younger generation I think will have an easier time of it but when I was a kid they had just introduced the metric system so we were taught to convert back and forth. Unfortunately I think that makes it harder on us because now we seem to use some of each!)
I found this chart as well online where you can punch in for example the number of pounds, ounces, etc. something is listed in and it will give you the metric equivalent for it and vice versa. http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/cooking
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