How to substitute butter when baking and frying

BERLIN - If you want to cut down on butter when baking, you can often easily replace it with other ingredients in your kitchen, though the right substitute depends on the dough and recipe in question, food blogger Kathrin Runge says.

The most important butter substitute in sponge batters - whether for cakes, muffins or cupcakes - is oil. Runge recommends a high-heat rapeseed oil with a butter flavor.

"The result is particularly moist," she says. "You do need slightly less oil than butter, though." As a rough rule of thumb, 100 grams of butter in sponge batters is equivalent to around 80 grams of oil.

In some biscuit and sponge batters, butter can also be replaced with half-fat butter on a one-to-one basis. For shortcrust pastry, vegan margarine or vegan butter works well as an alternative.

Runge has written about experiments with plant-based alternatives such as nut butter or fruit purée. She said the results were not as desired, however - the consistency was significantly altered. The same applies when using yogurt, buttermilk or quark instead of butter.

For frying - and often for cooking or baking too - plant-based margarine is of course an option. It can be heated to the same high temperatures as the oil it is made from, experts say. The advantage: compared with frying in butter, margarine makes for less spatter.

Those who want to use blended spreads for frying should pay attention to the usage instructions, however. Only a few manufacturers provide frying recommendations for such products.

Tip: Butter has a distinctive aroma. If you don't want to forgo the flavor of butter when frying, you can use clarified butter instead.

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This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 4:05 AM.