Crisco Shortening vs. Vegetable Oil
I suddenly was told I was making THE birthday cake for a 3 year old tomorrow, so shame on me - I bought a box cake mix. The mix calls for vegetable oil, however, I do not have any on hand. Can I substitute melted Crisco or should I run to the store?
When baking cakes, what substitutes won't affect taste or texture?
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3 Comments:
Everything affects taste and texture. It needs moisture so can be applesauce or pureed prunes. Prunes are hidden and good in chocolate cake. Puree of apricot in white or yellow cake is good.
JerzeeTomato at 5:38PM on 03/11/09
You can use Crisco, but don't melt it.
Use your hands to mix it into the powdered mix first, then add the other wet ingredients. Like making pastry, cut the shortening in.
Yes it will affect the texture (like Jerzee said, everything does) but it will work.
You can also use butter (you can melt that), fruit puree of almost any kind, olive oil, flax seed etc.
You can also make a soda cake if you happen to have some diet on hand. Mix a 12 oz diet lemon-lime soda with the cake mix and bake as directed. Works great. Again, slightly different texture, but still cake!
sadiepix at 7:11PM on 03/11/09
When I've run out of cooking oil, I've substitued the morning's coffee. Granted, this works mostly in chocolate cakes, but it gives great flavor and the moisture/oil combo needed. Yes, this is added to a boxed cake mix.
When added to a yellow or white mix, it still tasted pretty great.
donnie at 8:54PM on 03/11/09