Kitchen notes · September 7, 2026 · 5 min read
How to bake with honey instead of sugar (the four adjustments that matter)
Honey is sweeter, wetter and more acidic than sugar, and it browns faster. Get those four things right and you can swap it into almost anything.
People ask if they can use honey in place of sugar in baking. Yes, in nearly everything. But honey isn’t sugar in a different shape; it behaves differently in a batter, and if you swap it one-for-one you’ll get a cake that’s too sweet, too wet, and too brown on top before the middle is done. Four adjustments fix all of that.
1. Use less: three-quarters cup of honey per cup of sugar
Honey is sweeter than sugar, mostly because it’s high in fructose, which tastes sweeter than sucrose. So a recipe that calls for one cup of sugar wants about three-quarters of a cup of honey. Some people go as low as half a cup. Start at three-quarters and adjust to taste next time.
One more thing about measuring: honey is heavy. A cup weighs about twelve ounces, against seven for a cup of sugar. If you bake by weight, it’s easier to think in grams: for every 100 grams of sugar, use about 125 grams of honey and reduce the liquid as below.
2. Reduce the liquid: a quarter cup per cup of honey
Honey is roughly eighteen percent water. Sugar is dry. So for each cup of honey you add, take about a quarter cup of liquid (milk, water, juice) out of the recipe. If there is no liquid to remove, add a couple of tablespoons of flour instead. Skip this and cakes come out dense and gummy in the middle.
3. Add a pinch of baking soda
Honey is mildly acidic. In a batter that’s leavened with baking powder, that acid can interfere with the rise and leave a faint tang. A quarter teaspoon of baking soda per cup of honey neutralizes it and gives the leavening a boost. If the recipe already uses baking soda, you can usually leave this out.
4. Lower the oven by 25 degrees
The fructose in honey caramelizes at a lower temperature than sugar does. Honey-sweetened bakes brown quickly, and the top can go dark while the inside is still raw. Drop the oven temperature by 25°F and check a few minutes earlier than the recipe says. Tent the top with foil if it’s getting ahead of the middle.
What honey does well
Moisture and keeping. Honey holds water, so honey cakes and quick breads stay moist for days longer than sugar versions. Gingerbread, spice cake, banana bread, granola, oat cookies, and anything with nuts or whole grains are natural fits. Yeast breads love it too; a spoon of honey in the dough feeds the yeast and gives the crust color.
Flavor. This is where the kind of honey matters. A mild clover disappears into a batter and just sweetens it. Florida Red or buckwheat brings its own flavor, dark and a little tangy, and can carry a cake the way molasses does. Linden gives a faint floral note that is lovely in shortbread or a pound cake. Tupelo is buttery and expensive; save it for the table.
What honey does less well
Anything that depends on sugar’s structure: meringues, crisp cookies, caramel, candy. Sugar creams with butter to trap air and it crystallizes to make things crunchy; honey does neither. A chocolate chip cookie made with all honey comes out soft and cakey. If you want crisp edges, use half honey and half sugar.
Also, honey’s flavor is lost at high heat, and the enzymes in raw honey are gone the moment it goes into the oven. Baking with raw honey is fine, but you’re baking with it for the flavor and moisture, not for its raw qualities. For those, a drizzle on the finished cake after it cools does more.
A place to start
A simple honey cake: cream a stick of butter with three-quarters of a cup of honey, beat in two eggs and a teaspoon of vanilla, then fold in one and a half cups of flour, a teaspoon of baking powder, a quarter teaspoon of baking soda, a pinch of salt, and a quarter cup of milk. Bake in a loaf pan at 325°F for about 50 minutes, tenting with foil if the top browns early. Made with Florida Red it tastes like something from a farmhouse; made with clover it’s a plain, good cake for tea.
