After knowing about your oven and the basic tools you need for baking, you need to know about the substitutes for the ingredients. This will be so helpful if you live in a city (like Madurai where I live) that doesn’t have all the imported ingredients which we usually get in large cities. I usually go for home made ingredients if I don’t get them in my place. Some substitutions are quite easy to make while some like cheese substitutes can consume time. But if you are really crazy about baking just like me, then you would surely try these out. 
This list may be large but ill be very useful. So don’t forget o bookmark and pin it.
Flour:
All Purpose Flour – Maida
Whole Wheat Flour- Atta
Cake FlourÂ
Pastry Flour – For 1 cup substitute with 1/2 cup of cake flour and 1/2 cup of maida
Bread Flour – Maida
Self Rising Flour – For one cup add one cup of maida, 1 1/2 tsp of Baking powder and 1/4 tsp of salt
Corn Meal – Broken Maize
Shortening – Vanaspathi / Dalda
Almond Meal – Homemade Almond Meal ( click on link for procedure)
Almond Paste – Homemade Eggless almond paste (click on link for procedure)
Cream Cheese – Homemade Cream Cheese ( click on link for procedure)
Mascarpone Cheese – Homemade Mascarpone Cheese ( click on link for procedure)
Ricotta Cheese – Homemade Ricotta Cheese ( click on link for procedure)
Coconut Flakes – Homemade Coconut Flakes ( click on link for procedure)
Apple Puree – Homemade Apple Puree ( click on link for procedure)
Candied Peels – Homemade Candied Peels ( click on link for procedure)
Buttermilk – Mix together 1 cup of milk and 1 tbs of vinegar and set aside for 5 minutes. The milk will curdle. Then use it in the recipe.
Corn Syrup – Liquid Glucose
Arrowroot Powder – Corn Flour
Cream of Tartar – Vinegar / Lemon Juice
Low Fat Cream – Amul Low Fat Cream available in tetra packs
Whipping Cream / Double Cream – Fresh Cream available in the refrigerated dairy section in any super market. ( Milky Mist, Kannan, Nilgiris)
Sour Cream – Mix two tbs of curd to Amul cream and set aside for 12 hours in room temperature. Then use it.
Golden Syrup – Liquid Glucose
Evaporated Milk- Amul Low Fat Cream
Molasses – Honey or  thick Jaggery syrup
Caster sugar – Powdered Sugar
Light Brown Sugar – 1 cup of granulated sugar mixed with 2 tbs of thick  jaggery syrup
Dark Brown Sugar- 1 cup of granulated sugar mixed with 3 tbs of thick jaggery syrup
Melted Butter – Any Vegetable oil
Apple Cider Vinegar – Vinegar
Yogurt – Thick Curd
1 tbs Fresh Yeast – 1 tsp of Instant Yeast / 1 1/2 tsp of active dry yeast
If you are wondering about why I have not included egg substitutes, it is for another post.
My other posts in the Baking Basics Series:
- Oven
- Tools
- Homemade Pan Release
- Ingredient Substitutes
- Eggless Baking
- Flax Gel
- Dark Chocolate Ganache
- American Butter Cream
- Homemade Veg Fondant- Gelatin Free
- How to do Frozen Butter Cream Transfer / FBCT
- Italian Meringue Buttercream
- Homemade Mascarpone Cheese
such a useful post, i never knew bread flour and maida are same 🙂 i always thinks its extracted from the bread.
Hi mam…
Such a thoughtful post … Very very useful … Keep posting on baking which is so helpful for beginners like me … Thank u
That is such a useful post! Bookmarking it 🙂
very very informative post….
WOW!!!. you’re really genius for baking the good quality cakes. I really appreciate you efforts that you made this page. This will loved by everyone.
Thanks!!
Hello Ma’m…. I m completely a biggener… So my questions might sound silly… But I really want to learn baking… So please help….do we get liquid glucose in the market… Or we should prepare it with the powder adding water…then what should be the measuremet?
I really want to try cream and ganache on cakes….is it possible to prepare them one day before… If yes then how to keep them safely in the fridge… and for how long they can be kept in the fridge… Please guide me…
Hi Deeksha, liquid glucose is not the powder mixed with water. It is a thick syrup which is readily available online. You get it in shops that sell bakery products. And for your other doubts, I would recommend you to go through my baking basics posts. I have explained every thing in detail.
Thanks a lot Gayathri
thanks for such a nice information at a single place
Hi Gayathri,
Very useful post about substitutes. One stop page for everything I needed. For substituting butter you mention any vegetable oil. Could you please tell if sunflower oil is Ok or will it have any smell in the cake.
Thanks in advance
Any refined oil will do. You need to avoid oils like sesame oil and ground nut oil as they will impart their flavour to the bakes.
Thank you Gayathri for the quick reply
Very informative and useful!
Hi Gayatri,
The post is extremely useful like your other posts on baking basics. I have learned a lot from your posts…You inspire all of us.
Regards,
U r my best teacher . I want to follow all ur ideas as I m a beginner .
I was making french entremets which asks to use 110 gm of egg white how to substitute 110 GMs with chia , flex seeds
It is tough to say the exact substitute. Try aquafaba or flax egg.
Hye mam im a beginner but you mentioned any oil can we use canola oil or vegetable oils like mustard in baking
Use any oil that doesn’t have odor. Refined oil, canola oil and coconut oil are good for baking. Mustard, gingelly have very strong flavour which won’t be good for baking.
Hi I am using weismill instant active dry yeast . So which category will it fall either insatnat yeast or active dry yeast.
My otg Morphy Richards 18 RSS as per the manual for balance ngni have the use the bottom rod function. As per most of the blogs ask to use both the rods what should I do. Please help me
Instant active dry yeast is instant yeast only. It should look like very tiny sand like texture. Not granule like. If it looks like that, just add it directly to the flour.
As for baking, the setting should be both filaments on. Usually in oven manual, bake mode uses oly the bottom filament, but look for the setting which uses both filaments. That will bake your bread evenly and will give a nice colour on top.