When baking desserts, it’s impossible to replace white sugar (a solid ingredient) with honey or maple syrup (liquid ingredients) and expect similar results without making adjustments to the amount of liquid and sometimes even the preparation method. We rolled up our sleeves and tested (and retested) cake and muffin recipes using honey or maple syrup in place of sugar. The result? An almost foolproof approach to replacing part of the sugar in your cake and muffin recipes.
Did you know that Quebec produced 75% of the world’s maple harvest in 2009 and 2010, compared to 7% for the other Canadian provinces and 18% for the United States? If you’re curious to learn more about this beloved ingredient of our culinary heritage, check out these 10 facts about maple syrup.
The homegrown choice
When choosing a local honey, nothing beats visiting a public market. Not only will you have the opportunity to speak with a producer, but you’ll also likely get the chance to sample a few varieties. When buying honey at the grocery store, select Quebec honey by looking for the “Aliments du Québec” or “Miel 100% Québec” logo.
Honey
THE TASTE
The colour and flavour of honey depends on the type of flower that bees have visited. Depending on its origin, honey can have butter, flowery, caramel, spice or fruity aromas. Generally, the darker the honey (e.g., buckwheat, blueberry), the stronger its flavour. Very pale honey (e.g., clover) has a milder flavour. Since the flavour and colour of the chosen honey will be present in the recipe once finished baking, it’s important to use a honey that you enjoy and that pairs well with the recipe. A butter cake made with buckwheat honey might be surprising, whereas the same honey used in apple muffins, for example, would better highlight its unique taste. If you want your sugar substitute to go mostly unnoticed, go with a light-coloured honey.
REPLACING SUGAR WITH HONEY
Three things to know:
- Use less: One cup of honey contains more carbohydrates than one cup of sugar (280 g vs. 210 g) and it has a sweeter taste. We therefore recommend reducing the amount of honey compared with sugar. (See the table below.)
- Reduce liquids: Honey generally contains about 18% water (by weight), which corresponds to about ¼ cup (60 ml) of water per cup (250 ml) of honey. To compensate, subtract a little liquid (usually milk) from the recipe. (See the table below.)
- Lower the oven temperature: Honey contains glucose and fructose, two sugars that brown more during baking than white sugar. Given this, we recommend reducing the oven temperature by 25°F (15°C), particularly for recipes that contain a large amount of honey (more than ½ cup/125 ml). Check out our experiment on this subject further down.
THE METHOD
For muffins: Since muffins generally contain little sugar, you can exceptionally replace 100% of it with honey. Mix the honey with the liquid ingredients (milk, buttermilk, yogurt, etc.) of the recipe.
For cakes: Cakes contain a lot of sugar. However, the fructose in the honey affects the baking of the starch in the flour differently than white sugar. If you use too much honey, the crumb’s structure will be compromised and the cake won’t rise properly.
For optimal results, choose a mixture of half sugar and half honey and add the honey to the liquid ingredients (milk, buttermilk, yogurt, etc.). For genoise or angel food cakes which contain no liquid other than eggs: It is best to find recipes that already use honey rather than try and adjust them.
The homegrown choice
It’s hard not to find local maple syrup. In fact, Quebec is by far the largest producer of maple syrup in Canada (and the world!) so it’s easy to find some in grocery stores. Be sure not to confuse table syrup (made from glucose, corn syrup or even rice syrup with artificial flavours) with real maple syrup. Appearances can sometimes be deceiving, so read the ingredients list carefully.
Maple Syrup
THE TASTE
Maple sap used to make syrup primarily contains sucrose (the same sugar found in table sugar), as well as traces of glucose and fructose. However, harvest conditions simultaneously with sap storage methods and cooking techniques used to make the syrup can all lead to the breakdown of sucrose into glucose and fructose. These two molecules caramelize more easily, which explains the variations in colour and flavour found in maple syrups. To help consumers choose their syrups, producers have a classification system that differs slightly depending on whether it follows federal or provincial standards. In short, light, paler syrups are less fragrant and have a mild maple flavour, while dark syrups have a stronger, more pronounced caramel taste. Which one should you choose? Using No. 1 pale maple syrup in a cake or muffin would almost be a waste, as its delicate flavour would get lost. It’s better to use medium or amber syrup for this type of baking.
REPLACING SUGAR WITH MAPLE SYRUP
Two things to know:
- Similar sweetness: One cup of maple syrup contains about as many carbohydrates as one cup of white sugar (215 g vs 210 g) and its sweetness is nearly equivalent. You can therefore replace sugar with maple syrup volume for volume.
- Reduce liquids: Maple syrup contains 33% water (by weight) which corresponds to 7 tbsp (105 ml) of water per cup (250 ml) of syrup. To compensate, you need to subtract some liquid (usually milk) from the recipe. (See the table below.)
THE METHOD
For muffins: Since muffins generally contain little sugar, you can replace 100% of it with maple syrup. Mix the syrup with the liquid ingredients (milk, buttermilk, yogurt, etc.) of the recipe.
For cakes: Replacing all the sugar with maple syrup can cause issues with the amount of liquid and the rise of the cake. In fact, the amount of liquid to subtract risks surpassing the amount of milk found in the recipe. Mix the maple syrup with the liquid ingredients (milk, buttermilk, yogurt, etc.) of the recipe.
For genoise or angel food cakes which contain no liquid other than eggs: It is best to find recipes that already use maple syrup rather than try and adjust them. We recommend trying this three-ingredient angel food cake, sweetened only with maple syrup.
MAPLE SUGAR
Given that maple sugar is a dry ingredient, it can easily replace white sugar in all recipes. However, it’s less dense than sugar (one cup of maple sugar weighs about 150 g, whereas a cup of sugar weighs 210 g), so you would need to use about 1.5 times more to get the same amount of carbohydrates. Note that maple sugar sells for about $22 per pound, so choose your recipes wisely.
Here is a table summary of the proportions to follow when replacing sugar with honey or maple syrup in a cake.
*Some quantities have been rounded to make measuring easier.
GOOD TO KNOW
Before measuring maple syrup or honey, oil the inside of your measuring cup. The sticky sweeteners will slide out of the cup without leaving any trace behind!
DID YOU KNOW?
The fructose found in honey is known as a hygroscopic sweetener, meaning it attracts water. Honey therefore helps retain moisture in cakes, quick breads and muffins, which keep for longer.
INDISPENSABLE SUGAR?
In cake recipes where butter is creamed with sugar, the friction of the sugar crystals against the butter traps thousands of air bubbles, which are crucial for the cake to rise during baking. It’s therefore important to reserve a certain amount of sugar in the recipe in order to successfully achieve this step. For these reasons, we recommend not replacing more than half of the sugar with maple syrup or honey.
Experiment
To see if our recommendations actually work, we put them to the test. Here are the results.
VANILLA CAKE WITH HONEY OR MAPLE SYRUP
Our best-ever vanilla cake recipe requires whipping the eggs with sugar until the mixture triples in volume. This foam ensures the cake will rise properly. Will it yield the same results with honey or maple syrup? We tested it out by following the above replacement guide. Here are the results.
100% WHITE SUGAR VERSION
2 cups (500 ml) sugar
1 ¼ cup (310 ml) milk
HONEY VERSION
1 cup (250 ml) sugar
¾ cup (180 ml) honey
- Reduce milk by 3 tbsp (45 ml)
- Decrease oven temperature by 25°F (15°C)
MAPLE SYRUP VERSION
1 cup (250 ml) sugar
1 cup (250 ml) maple syrup
- Reduce milk by ⅓ cup + 4 tsp (100 ml)
THE RESULT?
In both cases, replacing part of the sugar with honey or maple syrup, along with adjusting the amount of milk, worked beautifully. The cakes turned out magnificent: perfectly browned, a good rise with a light and airy crumb and a delicate hint of honey or maple syrup. This experiment also confirmed that it’s necessary to reduce the oven temperature by 25°F (15°C) when baking honey-based recipes. Only a few minutes need to be added to the cooking time.
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