When you’re using flavorings in your baked goods or in the ingredients that you add to them like icing or simple syrup, you need to make sure you’re using the right one for the job. Some flavorings work better for one use than for others, and understanding the differences between extracts, emulsions, infusions, and oils will be handy if you do a lot of baking.
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Natural or artificial flavoring?
I don’t like artificial flavors, so I’m 100% on the side of natural flavors and making your own extracts and flavoring if you can. If you’re not into the making of them, I suggest that you buy the best quality natural flavorings that you can afford. It makes a huge difference in your baking, believe me.
Personally, the brand that I go back to all the time for natural flavoring, especially the citrus ones, is Boyajian and their citrus oils. I’ll talk about oils a little later, but this brand is one to check out for your baking, and cooking, too.
When I was doing custom wedding cakes I used the Boyajian citrus oils and their almond oil all the time, and it made a big difference in the way that my almond cake, my lemon cake, my Key lime cake, and my orange cakes tasted. I used to buy the bottles in the largest size I could, but if you only do occasional baking they make them in more manageable sizes!
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What are extracts for baking?
Extracts are probably the ingredient that most people are familiar with, since they’re available in the grocery store, and most recipes will call for extracts since they’re easy to find. Extracts are basically alcohol-based flavorings that are made by soaking the ingredient in the alcohol over time to extract the flavor. It can take months for an extract to reach full flavor when you DIY it, but you can usually use it after a month or so, depending on the ingredients you’re soaking.
Extracts are commonly used in baking recipes, and you can also put them in icing. They’re thinner than emulsions because they usually don’t have extra ingredients and thickeners added to them, but sometimes they can have some of that.
The downside of extracts is that they can evaporate a little in high-heat baking because they’re alcohol based. It’s not such a big deal as that might sound, though, but depending on how delicate the flavor is to begin with, you might lose some of the flavor during the baking process.
The other downside of extracts is that a lot of the ones that are commercially available are made from artificial flavors, so they taste a little fake. I’m not a fan of a lot of the extracts that you can get at the grocery store because they taste chemical-y, but if that doesn’t bother you extracts are fine for most baking recipes.
If a recipe calls for extracts you can use emulsions or the actual ingredient instead (like vanilla paste instead of vanilla extract) by substituting the ingredients for each other. Experimenting with the flavorings that you have can help you decide which one gives you the flavor that you like.
You can also add extracts to simple syrups to flavor them, but I prefer infusions for that. It’s something you can do, though.
What is an emulsion for baking?
Bakery emulsions are different from extracts because they’re usually water-based, and they generally have extra thickeners and emulsifiers in them that can give the emulsion a cloudy appearance. The flavor is more stable at high temperatures since there’s no alcohol to evaporate in the heat, so they’re designed to keep the flavor well in baked goods.
The thing that I don’t like about emulsions is that they usually have a lot of artificial flavors, and the thickeners that are used can often be things that you can’t pronounce, so they tend to be more on the chemical side, not the natural side. (And I know that natural things are also chemicals, but you get what I mean.)
Emulsions are good for baking, but I wouldn’t use them in simple syrups or directly in drinks because of the additional chemicals in them. You CAN use them that way, but there are better options.
I would also avoid using them in chocolate or candy melts directly because the water content can make the chocolate seize up, which is never good. Stick with an oil-based flavor for that.
One brand of bakery emulsions that I’ve used is Lorann oils, which also makes extracts and other flavors for different uses. You can get them on Oasis Supply and use my discount code Remember10 to get a percentage off your entire order. The pumpkin spice emulsion I tried recently was pretty good, and would give you a nice touch of flavor in your baked goods if you added it to your cakes or cookies.
What are infusions for flavorings?
Now we come to my favorite kind of flavoring for drinks and to add to cakes for additional flavors. Infusions are usually water-based, and are made by boiling ingredients in the water to extract the flavor from the ingredient. Tea and coffee are technically infusions, and you can make a lot of nice-tasting syrups and flavoring for drinks and other things that you don’t bake this way.
Sometimes infusions can be oil-based, and you’ll see those in stores in the gourmet section with infused oils. Those are for cooking, obviously, not to put in drinks, but you can also make those yourself by putting ingredients into a bottle of cooking oil and leaving them in a dark cabinet for a month or so. The flavor of the ingredients will get infused into the oil, and it will add some flavor to your cooking.
Simple syrup isn’t an infusion on its own (I guess you could argue that point, but I’m talking about flavoring.) But when you add ingredients to the syrup as it cooks, you end up with a flavored syrup that can be added to drinks and brushed onto cake layers to give you some added moisture and flavor.
For an infusion you should use the raw ingredients like spices and herbs to create the flavor, don’t use artificial flavoring or extracts if you can help it. If you’re going to go to the trouble of making these on your own, use the good stuff. It’s not hard to make a simple syrup that’s infused with flavorings, and you’ll get the best flavor if you start with natural ingredients.
I make a chai spice infusion that I put in my morning tea, and I have a sugared and non-sugared version. Infusions don’t have to be made with a simple syrup if you’re trying to avoid the sugar, just make it with water!
You can see my recipe for pumpkin spice syrup here.
What are oils for flavoring?
These are the absolute best for a lot of things because the flavor is the strongest. I LOVE LOVE LOVE natural flavor oils for baking because a little of it will give you the brightest flavor in cakes and other baked goods.
Oils are usually derived from the actual ingredient, so they have a very natural flavor if no artificial flavorings are being added to them. I mentioned the Boyajian oils earlier, and they’re my absolute favorite for flavoring citrus cakes because they taste like the real thing. (The company contacted me to see if I wanted these sample bottles and I said YES PLEASE without hesitation.)
Oils are also good for adding to chocolate since the oil base won’t make the chocolate seize up. Orange and lime oils go well with chocolate, lemon not so much for some reason, but the first two are really good.
If a recipe calls for 1 Tbsp of lemon extract, you can probably get away with 1 tsp or less of lemon oil, just because the flavor is so strong and it doesn’t evaporate during the baking process. When I was making wedding cakes I used the Boyajian almond oil exclusively for my almond cake, and it was one of my most popular cakes. The natural flavor from the oil avoided the bitter artificial flavor you can get from extracts that have artificial ingredients, and it makes a huge difference in your baking, I promise.
The only thing to be aware of with flavored oils is that a little does go a long way, so you should start with a small amount and work up to the flavor profile that you’re looking for. Don’t exchange an oil for an extract equally if you’re switching one for the other, because it will throw the flavors off.
Also, be careful if you use these in drinks, which you can do, but you might not want to. Seriously, the flavor is so concentrated, you won’t need much in a regular-sized drink to get a strong flavor, so start with a teeny amount and see what you need to do to increase it after that. Don’t start with a lot to begin with! Putting them in a simple syrup is probably your best bet for flavoring drinks.
I hope that gives you an idea about which type of flavoring is best for you, and how to adjust them in your recipes. My advice would be to always look for natural flavorings if they’re available, because you’ll avoid the artificial, chemical and sometimes bitter flavors that you can get from the manmade flavorings.
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