Sugar to Honey Converter

The four rules for swapping sugar for honey

Honey is not a one-for-one stand-in for sugar. It is sweeter, it is wetter, it is acidic, and it browns faster. Get those four differences right and almost any recipe converts cleanly. Get them wrong and you end up with a cake that is raw in the middle and burnt on top.

• Use less. Replace 1 cup of sugar with 3/4 cup of honey. Honey is roughly 30 percent sweeter on a per-volume basis.
• Remove liquid. Take 1/4 cup of other liquid out of the recipe for every cup of sugar you replaced. Honey carries its own water.
• Add a little soda. Whisk in 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda per cup of honey, but only if the recipe already uses a chemical leavener.
• Drop the heat. Lower the oven temperature by 25°F and check for doneness 5 to 10 minutes early.

Those rules are the consensus among baking references and honey producers. The National Honey Board's guide to honey as an ingredient covers the moisture and browning behavior, and USDA FoodData Central has the exact sugar and water content for both ingredients if you want to check the arithmetic yourself.

One thing worth saying plainly: this converter is about baking chemistry, not nutrition. Honey and sugar both raise blood sugar. Swapping one for the other does not make a recipe low-sugar.

Worked example: a cake that calls for 1 1/2 cups of sugar

Your grandmother's spice cake wants 1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar, 3/4 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of oil, 2 eggs and 2 cups of flour, baked at 350°F for 35 minutes.

• Honey to use: 1.5 x 0.75 = 1 1/8 cups (1 cup plus 2 tablespoons)
• Honey weight: 1.125 x 339 = 381 grams, against 300 grams of sugar
• Liquid to remove: 1.5 x 0.25 = 0.375 cups, which is 6 tablespoons, so the milk drops from 3/4 cup to 3/8 cup
• Baking soda to add: 1.125 x 0.25 = about 1/4 teaspoon
• New oven temperature: 325°F, and start checking at 28 minutes

Spray the pan and line the bottom with parchment, because honey makes batters stick. Expect the crumb to be denser and moister than the original, and expect the top to look darker at the same point in the bake. Both are normal.

If the cake comes out gummy, the usual cause is that the liquid reduction was skipped. Honey holds moisture tightly, so a batter that looked right in the bowl bakes into a wet center.

Worked example: converting honey back to sugar

The reverse trip happens when you are out of honey, or when you are baking for a child under one year old and cannot use honey at all.

• Recipe calls for: 1/2 cup of honey
• Sugar to use: 0.5 x 1.33 = 2/3 cup
• Sugar weight: 0.667 x 200 = 133 grams, against 170 grams of honey
• Liquid to add back: 0.5 x 0.25 = 0.125 cups, which is 2 tablespoons
• New oven temperature: 25°F higher, and check 5 minutes later than the recipe says
• Baking soda: none, the honey was supplying the acid

The extra liquid matters as much going this direction as the other way. Sugar is dry, so a recipe written around honey will be stiff without it. Add the 2 tablespoons to the milk, water, coffee or whatever liquid the recipe already uses.

Going back to sugar also means the bake goes back to browning more slowly. If you keep the honey recipe's oven temperature, the cake will take noticeably longer and may dry out on the edges while the center catches up.

Sugar to honey conversion chart

Every amount a typical recipe asks for, converted:

The baking soda column only applies to recipes with baking powder or baking soda in them. In a marinade or a barbecue sauce, ignore both the soda and the liquid adjustment. There the swap is just 3/4 cup of honey for every cup of sugar.

Keep in mind that honey weighs more than sugar for the same volume. If a recipe is written in grams, convert by weight rather than by cup, or the batch will come out sweeter than you expect.

Which recipes take honey well, and which do not

Honey is not equally at home everywhere. These are the patterns that show up in practice.

• Great fits: quick breads, muffins, granola, brownies, spice cakes, pancakes, marinades, salad dressings and barbecue sauce.
• Workable with care: layer cakes, cookies and sandwich bread. Lower the oven and watch the browning.
• Poor fits: meringues, angel food cake and anything that depends on whipped egg whites for its whole structure. Honey is a liquid and deflates foam.
• Do not bother: candy and caramel, where sugar crystallization is the point. Honey brings invert sugars that change how the candy sets.

Cookies are the most common experiment. Honey cookies spread more, stay chewier for days and brown faster. Chilling the dough for 30 minutes before baking keeps them from running into each other on the sheet.

If you are converting a recipe you make often, change one variable at a time. Start with the honey amount and the liquid reduction, bake it once, then decide whether the 25°F drop is enough for your oven.

Honey types, weights and storage

Not all honey behaves the same in the oven. Clover and wildflower honey are mild and light, and they are the safest all-purpose swaps. Buckwheat and other dark honeys are stronger in flavor and will change the taste of a delicate cake. Creamed honey is crystallized, so warm it gently until it pours before you measure.

Measuring by weight is more accurate than measuring by volume for honey, because it clings to the cup. If you only have cups, spray the measuring cup with a little oil first and the honey will slide out.

Honey also never spoils. It can crystallize, and it can ferment if it picks up enough moisture, but a sealed jar kept at room temperature keeps for years. If it hardens, stand the jar in warm water for 10 minutes. Do not microwave it in a plastic squeeze bottle.

One last safety point that matters more than any baking tip: honey should never be given to infants under 12 months old. Honey can carry Clostridium botulinum spores, which a baby's gut cannot handle. Older children and adults are fine.