How to Be a Better Baker for the Planet

Think “sustainable foods,” and you might not picture indulgent dessert. But Le Cordon Bleu-trained baker and writer Caroline Saunders makes the case that Earth-friendly confections can be both delectable and simple to make at home. 

When devising recipes for her newsletter, Pale Blue Tart, Saunders considers both the carbon footprint and the long-term climate resilience of ingredients. She knows that climate change, which imperils both food systems and wild birds, is a heavy topic to discuss. A tempting dessert helps bring people to the table, literally, to face the facts and dream up solutions. As Saunders puts it: “How much more inviting can you get than offering someone a slice of chocolate cake to start the conversation?” 

A perfect place to begin with climate-smart baking is by switching up flours, Saunders says. Wheat is particularly sensitive to heat and drought; diversifying crops is a hedge against future disasters. Hardier grains like millet and Kernza—a perennial with deep roots that store carbon and build healthy soils—need consumer support, Saunders says, plus add new flavors to baked goods. (Kernza, for example, lends a note of graham cracker or cinnamon.)

Since producing animal products on average emits more greenhouse gases and requires more land and water than plant-based alternatives, Saunders often opts to replace eggs and dairy if it won’t compromise taste or texture. “I will veganize what can be veganized well,” she says, including quick breads and simple cakes like banana bread and lemon loaf cake. She sticks with eggs for more technical recipes like angel food cake and crème brûlée.

Choosing ingredients with a smaller environmental impact doesn’t require buying new. One of Saunders’s favorite tips is using what would otherwise go to waste: stale bread for croutons, leftover seeds for a crunchy topping, cake scraps for trifle, and overripe fruit for jam.

Sustainable baking won’t solve our planetary crisis—that will require coordinated, systemic action—but Saunders believes in her recipes’ power to inspire. As she says: “It makes all the downstream stuff, like policy and agricultural changes, easier to imagine when you see how good the result would taste.” 

Recipe: Chocolate-Tahini Mini Cakes

Start your planet-friendly baking journey with Caroline Saunders’s go-to recipe for a rich, chocolatey winter treat—with no eggs or dairy!

Ingredients

Cake
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (oat flour, with its nutty flavor, is a good candidate for partial substitution) 
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons neutral oil
• 1 tablespoon white, apple cider, 
or rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup water or coffee

Frosting and topping
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) room 
temp­era­ture vegan butter
• 1 tablespoon tahini
• Generous pinch salt
• 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
• 2 teaspoons nondairy milk
• Demerara sugar, for dipping

Instructions 

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease bottom and sides of a 9-by-13-inch pan and line with parchment paper, greased on top and trimmed to fit snugly, with a little overhang on two sides (creating handles to remove the cake). 

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking 
soda, and salt. In another bowl, combine oil, vinegar, vanilla, and water or coffee. Add wet ingredients to dry and whisk until smooth. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 20 to 24 minutes, or until the cake’s center springs back when poked gently. Let cool.

Gently remove cake from pan and transfer to a cutting board. Cut out shapes with a metal cookie cutter. 

Place softened butter in a bowl. Mix with a stand or hand mixer until smooth. Add tahini and salt and mix until incorporated. Add powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well. Add nondairy milk, 1 teaspoon at a time, until frosting is soft and easily spreadable.

Decorate: Frost cakes using a knife. Pour some demerara sugar on a small plate and gently press cakes, frosting-side down, against sugar. Enjoy!

This story originally ran in the Winter 2025 issue as “Piece of Cake.” To receive our print magazine, become a member by making a donation today.