When baking calls, nothing should stand in your way. So if you’re short on time, missing ingredients or catering for a mixed crowd of dietary requirements, give one of these stand-ins a go.

Use coconut sugar instead of brown sugar

If you’re looking to curb your refined sugar intake or you’re baking for diabetics, coconut sugar is a great alternative to regular sugar. It’s the crystalised nectar of the coconut palm tree blossom, so it’s naturally lower GI (around half that of white sugar), and a good source of iron, potassium and B vitamins. Depending on the variety of plant it came from, it can sit in for caster sugar, but is more closely aligned with brown sugar in flavour and texture.

Swap fresh fruit for Goulburn Valley fruits

There’s nothing like a drop in temperature to give us more excuses for indulgent winter baking. If you want to save on time and fruit (let’s face it, poaching pears for those flaky danishes or upside down cakes can take up to two hours when factoring in cooling times), go for Goulburn Valley’s range of fruits in juices. They cut your prep time in half and still pack a fruity punch. For a foolproof baked treat, try making freeform plum, apricot or pear galettes by topping store-bought shortcrust pastry with Goulburn Valley fruits, and enveloping them slightly around the edges. Brush with egg-wash, sprinkle with sugar, bake, and serve with double cream. Mercy.

Ditch the egg for a fleg (a flax egg)

Whether you’re catering for vegan friends or you forgot to stock up, there are ways to get around eggs while baking, despite their magical ability to bind, moisten or serve as a leavening agent. While bananas and apple puree are a great way to moisten sweet treats, they don’t work so well in savoury bakes. For a substitute for almost all uses for eggs in baking, try making a flax egg by mixing one tablespoon of flaxmeal with three tablespoons of water. After soaking for five to 10 minutes, the flax becomes almost gelatinous and starts to take on an egg-like consistency. It’s a great binding agent, while also moistening and helping cakes to rise. Plus, flax will give foods a good fibre and omagomega-3 hit.

Yoghurt or lemon juice for buttermilk

Buttermilk is not necessarily a baking staple that’s always floating around in the fridge, but if you’re making pancakes, muffins or scones, it’s a great asset. In a nutshell, it’s acidified dairy that, when mixed with baking soda in a batter, releases CO2 bubbles that help to lighten and leaven your goods (it’s a bit like when you used to pour vinegar over baking soda in science class to create volcanoes). If there’s none at hand, don’t rush to the shops – a bit of watered down yoghurt will do the trick. Or, if you’re out of that too, add one tablespoon of lemon juice or white vinegar to a liquid measuring cup, and enough milk to make one cup. Ditching dairy altogether? This works with substitutes like soy or almond milk, too.