How to Replace Eggs With Bananas in Cake Mix

If you're vegan or vegetarian, or you don't eat eggs for another reason, watching other people enjoy cake while you eat a boring banana is no fun. But you don't have to suffer on the sidelines any longer. Take that banana and replace eggs in cake mix to make your own delicious, eggless cake.

The edible, incredible egg is delicious and nutritious (to some) and it plays a major role in baking an edible, incredible cake. According to pastry chef Jenni Field, eggs are vital for providing structure, flavor and texture to baked goods. They contribute to browning and moisture and affect the way gluten behaves.

Their role is complex because the egg white and the yolk have different functions when used separately than when the whole egg is included. Bananas aren't nearly as complex. They're bananas, they grow on trees, they offer fiber and potassium — but that's about it. They are about 75 percent water, according to the USDA, so they contribute moisture.

Make no mistake: Bananas can't do everything eggs do, but you can use banana for an egg substitute to create a decent finished product that you and everyone else will enjoy.

Read more: Top Ten Health Benefits of Bananas

Using bananas as an egg replacement is easy as pie — or in this case, cake. Use one ripe mashed banana for each egg in your recipe, says Betty Crocker. That's it!

Your best bet is to find a recipe written with this substitution already made for you. There's never any guarantee when baking, especially when you're using substitutions, but working from a tried-and-tested recipe can help you feel a little more confident doing this for the first time. After that, you can tweak the amounts slightly based on your results.

Read more: Healthy Baking Tips For More Flavorful Food

When using bananas as an egg substitute, you can expect your cake to have at least a slight banana flavor. It will be more or less noticeable depending on the other ingredients in your cake. The banana flavor is more likely to come through in a light vanilla cake than in a rich, dark chocolate cake.

If you try bananas and decide you don't like the flavor, you have a few other options to replace eggs in cake mix:

• Applesauce: Use one-fourth cup (4 tablespoons) per egg.
• Silken tofu: Process it in a blender until smooth. Then use one-fourth cup (4 tablespoons) per egg.
• Buttermilk: Use one-fourth cup (4 tablespoons) per egg.
• Baking soda and vinegar: Mix 1 tablespoon of vinegar with 1 tablespoon of baking soda to replace one egg. This works best with light, fluffy cakes, according to the Kitchn.
• Yogurt (Greek or regular): Use one-fourth cup per large egg.

Then, there are always packaged egg replacers made from tapioca and potato starch. According to the manufacturer instructions, the product works best in from-scratch recipes and may not work with all cake mixes. If you are using it to replace eggs in cake mix, it will be a matter of trial and error — but isn't that true with most baking?