Can You Substitute Canola Oil and Vegetable Oil? Yes! You can use vegetable oil when it calls for canola oil and vice versa. Although they have slightly different tastes, the result will be the same when you cook with either, whether you're frying, sautéing, baking, etc.
Best Vegetable Oil Substitute for Baked Goods
You can swap the vegetable oil for an equal measure of safflower or canola oil with zero difference in flavor. But baked items don't require fats with a high smoke point, so feel free to try a more flavorful oil like olive or coconut.
Canola has a neutral flavor and a high smoke point, so it's handy for stir frying, roasting, grilling and pan-frying. It's a good substitute for vegetable oil when baking – just swap out equal parts. You can also use it for marinades and salad dressings when you don't want the flavor of olive oil.
Canola oil has a higher ratio of monounsaturated fat to saturated fat, and free of trans fats, which is considered more heart healthy. While vegetable oil has 2 grams of saturated fat per tablespoon, canola oil has only 1 gram. Vegetable oil tends to be the more cost-effective alternative of the two.
Because the amount of oil in a cake mix is small in proportion to all of the combined ingredients, there is very little flavor difference in cakes made with different types of vegetable oils. Go ahead and use oil labeled vegetable, corn, canola, all types of olive, peanut and sunflower oil or oil blends.
Whenever possible, use canola oil for baking.
Its neutral taste will not give your cake any undesirable flavor, and you can keep the focus on the flavors in your cake, especially if you are using premium ingredients in your cake such as vanilla beans and high quality chocolate.
You can use melted coconut oil or butter as a 1-for-1 substitute for vegetable oil in baked goods like muffins, cakes and cookies. The resulting texture will be very similar, though it may have a subtly different flavor.
Another liquid fat you can easily replace vegetable oil within brownies is canola oil. It's a low-cholesterol and a low-saturated fat oil found in most kitchens. So, if you're in a pinch or want to take your brownies' fat content down a notch, canola oil will do just fine.
Best Oils for Baking
Choosing vegetable oil is the best option for baking moist, delicious baked goods. Canola oil, the most common vegetable oil used in baking, doesn't add a strong flavor. It allows your cake's flavor will shine through while still achieving a moist texture.
Vegetable oil contributes moistness far more reliably, a result of the fact that oil remains liquid at room temperature while butter solidifies. Liquid contributes to the sensation of moistness, and therefore cakes made with oil often present as moister than their butter-based counterparts.
What can you substitute for canola oil when baking? Replacing your baking oil is probably easier than frying oil. Butter is my favorite, but you can use vegetable, safflower, grapeseed, or sunflower oils for an economical replacement. Avocado or light olive oil works great, too, but they're much more expensive.
Any dessert recipe that calls for vegetable oil as an ingredient is a perfect chance to swap it for olive oil. In these recipes, the swap would be a one-to-one ratio. In other words, if the recipe calls for one cup of vegetable oil, you would simply use on cup of extra virgin olive oil.
What can be used to grease a baking pan? There's a multitude of choices when it comes to greasing a baking pan. You can use anything from a canola oil or olive oil spray to coconut oil or butter. Olive oil can be used in a pinch, but is a little harder to get to stick to the sides of the pan if you go too heavy handed.
You definitely should not skip the oil when making boxed cake mix. Oil is the only fat in the cake mix and fat is needed to make your cake nice and tender. Without some kind of fat, the flavor of the cake would fall flat and the cake would not have that soft texture you crave.
Most cake mixes call for oil, but butter will bring in amazing flavor. To substitute butter for oil in baking just melt the butter, measure it, let it cool, and add it as you would the oil. Compared to oil, butter will create a cake with a firmer, cakeier texture.
Grapeseed Oil
Grapeseed oil is popular among many for cooking. It is a healthy alternative with a high amount of polyunsaturated fat. According to health experts, it has many health benefits including lowering blood cholesterol levels and decreasing the risk related to the heart.
If you're missing oil, try melted butter. Some experts say using melted butter as a replacement for oil improves the taste and texture of box cakes. Use the same measurement of butter as the recipe calls for in oil.
The texture of cakes made with oil is—in general—superior to the texture of cakes made with butter. Oil cakes tend to bake up loftier with a more even crumb and stay moist and tender far longer than cakes made with butter. So why do most cake recipes start with butter? Flavor.