Honey substitutes

Honey substitutes — 8 options, ranked, with the exact amount

Also called raw honey, clover honey, runny honey, liquid honey, set honey, creamed honey, manuka honey, honey syrup

Use thisBest of 8 options

Use Maple syrup

1 cup for every 1 cup honey

For almost any recipe, maple syrup is the swap: use 1 cup maple syrup per 1 cup honey, cut another liquid in the recipe by 2-3 tbsp because maple syrup is wetter, and drop the oven 25°F. Agave nectar is closer in thickness — use ¾ cup, since it is sweeter. If you need honey gone for vegan or infant reasons, maple syrup, agave, date syrup and golden syrup are all bee-free.

Verdict —: Tweak it
The tweak —: Use cup for cup, reduce other liquid by 2-3 tbsp, lower the oven 25°F.
Best for —: when you want a bee-free swap that behaves the same in the oven
Pantry —: Likely in your cupboard

Checked 22 Jul 2026 · no sponsored swaps

But first: what’s the honey doing?

Pick your case

Is the honey being baked into something, or eaten as itself?

Nothing tastes like honey, so pick the flavour you actually want rather than a copy: maple syrup, date syrup or golden syrup. All are the right thickness and none pretends to be honey.
Notes on maple syrup, date syrup or golden syrup
1 cup per cup
Match the thickness and the water content, and keep the oven low. Maple syrup or agave both work with the corrections on their rows. If the batter uses baking soda and no baking powder, stay with an acidic swap — agave or date syrup — or add ¼ tsp lemon juice per ½ tsp soda. There is more on the baking case at for baking.
Notes on maple syrup, agave nectar or granulated sugar + water
1 cup per cup
You want something that caramelises without going bitter, and any syrup does that. Maple syrup and agave are the easiest. Watch it more closely than you would honey under a broiler; all of these can go from glossy to black in under a minute.
Notes on maple syrup, agave nectar or golden syrup
1 cup per cup
Every swap on this page except honey itself is bee-free: maple syrup, agave, golden syrup, date syrup, corn syrup and plain sugar. For a child under 12 months, honey must be left out entirely, cooked or raw — see the safety note. Our vegan page has more at vegan honey.
Notes on maple syrup, agave nectar or granulated sugar + water
1 cup per cup
Here the honey is doing structural work — its fructose stops the syrup crystallising into grit. Do not improvise; see the Do-not-swap section below.

Start with whether the honey gets cooked. If you are drizzling it or stirring it into tea, no substitute tastes like honey, so choose a flavour you actually want — maple, date or golden syrup — rather than the closest imitation. If it is going into a batter, the two things to get right are the water content and the oven: maple syrup is twice as wet as honey, so cut 2-3 tbsp of other liquid per cup, and keep the oven 25°F lower than the recipe says for anything fructose-heavy. Then check whether the recipe uses baking soda without baking powder; if it does, honey was the acid, and a neutral syrup needs ¼ tsp lemon juice per ½ tsp of soda added back.

Job by job4 jobs

Honey is a fifth sweeter than sugar, pulls water from the air so cakes stay moist for days, and is acidic at about pH 4 — and its fructose browns early, so honey bakes darken fast.

Moisture & hydrationprimary

Honey pulls water out of the air and will not let it go, so a honey cake is still soft on day five while the same cake made with sugar has dried out.

Acidsecondary

At around pH 4 honey is acidic enough to react with baking soda, and in a honey cake or honey cookie the soda is often there to react with it rather than with buttermilk or brown sugar.

Sweetnessprimary

Fructose and glucose in roughly equal parts read as about a fifth sweeter than table sugar, which is why the standard baking swap is ¾ cup honey for 1 cup sugar rather than cup for cup.

Browning & colorsecondary

Fructose browns at a lower temperature than sucrose does, so honey-sweetened batters colour early — that is why every honey recipe tells you to drop the oven 25°F, and why the edges are dark before the middle sets if you do not.

Every option, one card

Ranked · per 1 cup honey

Honey substitutes compared
#	Substitute	Instead of 1 cup honey	Verdict
1	Maple syrupwhen you want a bee-free swap that behaves the same in the oven	1 cup pure maple syrupTweak it	Tweak it
2	Agave nectarwhen you want the sweetness without adding a new flavour	¾ cupTweak it	Tweak it
3	Golden syrupwhen you want the exact pouring and clinging behaviour of honey	1 cupTweak it	Tweak it
4	Granulated sugar + waterwhen there is no syrup of any kind in the house	1 ¼ cups + ¼ cup waterYou'll taste it	You'll taste it
5	Light corn syrupwhen a completely neutral flavour is what you want	1 cupYou'll taste it	You'll taste it
6	Date syrupwhen a dark, fruity sweetness suits the recipe	1 cupYou'll taste it	You'll taste it
7	Brown rice syrupwhen you want much less sweetness and a lot of stickiness	1 ¼ cupsYou'll taste it	You'll taste it
8	Molasseswhen molasses is genuinely the only syrup you have	½ cup + ½ cup granulated sugar dissolved in 2 tbsp waterYou'll taste it	You'll taste it

What changesWhat changes, option by option8 options

Maple syrup

clearly maple instead of floral

The most reliable swap and the one most people have. Same pouring thickness, similar sweetness, and it holds moisture nearly as well as honey does.

Covers: Moisture & hydration; Sweetness; Browning & color
Misses: Acid — not covered

What these mean

Amount: 1 cup pure maple syrup for 1 cup honey (340 g)
Then: Cut another liquid in the recipe — milk, water, juice — by 2 to 3 tbsp, because maple syrup is about 34% water against honey's 17%.
Best for: when you want a bee-free swap that behaves the same in the oven, cakes, muffins, loaves and granola, drizzling on yogurt, porridge and pancakes, glazes for carrots, salmon and ham
Taste: clearly maple instead of floral; slightly less sweet, with a woody, caramel finish
Texture: very close — soft and moist, keeps well for several days
Look: a shade darker in the crumb and a slightly duller, less glossy glaze
Prep: Use cup for cup, reduce other liquid by 2-3 tbsp, lower the oven 25°F.
Pantry: Likely in your cupboard
Suits: vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free

Reduce the recipe's other liquid by 2-3 tbsp per cup. Skip this and a cake batter comes out slack and bakes gummy in the middle.
Drop the oven 25°F (about 15°C), the same as you would for honey.
If the recipe uses baking soda and no baking powder, add ¼ tsp lemon juice or cider vinegar per ½ tsp of soda. Maple syrup is close to neutral and honey was the acid.
Buy pure maple syrup, not pancake syrup. Pancake syrup is corn syrup with maple flavouring and is much sweeter — if it is all you have, use ¾ cup and skip the liquid reduction.

The liquid correction is the whole difference between this working and not working. Maple syrup carries twice as much water as honey, and in a cake batter 3 tbsp is enough to feel.

Agave nectar

clean and simply sweet; the floral, slightly waxy note of honey is gone entirely

Boiled-down agave sap. It is thinner and sweeter than honey, mildly acidic like honey, and almost flavourless — which is either the point or the problem, depending on the recipe.

Covers: Moisture & hydration; Acid; Sweetness; Browning & color

What these mean

Amount: ¾ cup agave nectar for 1 cup honey (340 g)
Then: Add 1 tbsp water if the mixture looks stiffer than the recipe describes; agave is a little thinner than honey but you have used less of it.
Best for: when you want the sweetness without adding a new flavour, soda-leavened batters that need an acid, cold drinks and cocktails, where it dissolves without stirring, vegan baking that should not taste of maple
Texture: a little softer and stickier in the crumb
Look: paler than honey in the finished bake, but it browns fast on the surface, so tops darken while the inside is still light
Prep: Use ¾ cup per cup of honey and lower the oven 25°F.
Suits: vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free

Use ¾ cup, not a full cup. Agave is sweeter than honey and a straight swap makes the result cloying.
Drop the oven 25°F and check 5 minutes early — agave is mostly fructose and browns even faster than honey does.
In a glaze under a broiler, brush it on in the last 3 minutes rather than the last 10, or it will scorch.

We are not making health claims for agave here — it is a sugar syrup. Choose it for its neutral flavour and its thin, easily-stirred texture, which is genuinely useful in cold drinks.

Golden syrup

butterscotch and caramel rather than floral

Pale inverted cane syrup, standard in British cupboards. It is the closest match to honey for thickness and stickiness, and it tastes of butterscotch rather than flowers.

Covers: Moisture & hydration; Sweetness; Browning & color
Misses: Acid — not covered

What these mean

Amount: 1 cup golden syrup for 1 cup honey (340 g)
Best for: when you want the exact pouring and clinging behaviour of honey, flapjacks, granola bars and anything that has to hold together, steamed puddings and treacle tart, when maple flavour would be wrong in the recipe
Taste: butterscotch and caramel rather than floral; smoother and rounder, with none of honey's slight sharpness
Texture: essentially identical — this is the best texture match on the page
Look: the same golden colour and gloss; nobody will see the difference
Prep: Use cup for cup, adding acid separately if the recipe relies on baking soda.
Suits: vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free

Add ¼ tsp lemon juice per ½ tsp baking soda if the recipe uses soda without baking powder; golden syrup is essentially neutral.
Cut other sugar in the recipe by 1 tbsp per cup — golden syrup tastes a touch sweeter and flatter than honey.

Do not confuse it with black treacle, which sits beside it on the shelf and is dark and bitter. Corn syrup is the nearest American equivalent, but it is less sweet and has no flavour at all.

Granulated sugar + water

plainly sweet with nothing behind it; every floral and caramel note goes

You need more sugar than honey by volume because honey is sweeter, plus water to replace the roughly 17% honey carried. It sweetens correctly and does nothing else honey did.

Covers: Sweetness
Misses: Moisture & hydration — not covered; Acid — not covered; Browning & color — not covered

What these mean

Amount: 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar + ¼ cup water for 1 cup honey (340 g)
Then: Warm them together, stirring, just until the sugar has dissolved and the syrup is clear — about 2 minutes. Do not let it boil, or you have started making candy.
Best for: when there is no syrup of any kind in the house, sweetening tea, coffee and lemonade, cakes and cookies you will eat the same day, when you want no added flavour at all
Texture: drier, and it stales fast — the cake that stayed soft for five days with honey will be firm by tomorrow evening
Look: distinctly paler, both the crust and the crumb, because there is no fructose to brown early
Prep: Warm 1 ¼ cups sugar with ¼ cup water until dissolved and clear, without boiling.
Pantry: Likely in your cupboard
Suits: vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free

Keep the oven where the recipe says. This is the one swap that does not brown early, so dropping it 25°F would leave the bake pale and undercooked.
Add ¼ tsp lemon juice per ½ tsp of baking soda in the recipe. Sugar syrup is neutral and honey was acidic.
In a creamed butter cake, use the sugar dry and add the ¼ cup water to the other liquids instead. The crystals will cut air into the butter, which a syrup cannot do.

The moisture is the loss that surprises people. Honey is holding water in that cake for days, and sugar syrup simply does not; you notice it on day two, not on day one.

Light corn syrup

sweet and utterly plain; the recipe will taste of its other ingredients

A clear, thick glucose syrup with no flavour. It matches honey for body and stickiness, holds moisture well, and brings nothing else to the party.

Covers: Moisture & hydration; Sweetness
Misses: Acid — not covered; Browning & color — not covered

What these mean

Amount: 1 cup light corn syrup for 1 cup honey (340 g)
Then: Add 1 tbsp granulated sugar per cup, since corn syrup is less sweet than honey.
Best for: when a completely neutral flavour is what you want, pecan pie, caramel corn and candy-style bakes, keeping a frosting or filling glossy and soft, recipes where honey's flavour would clash
Texture: closest of any swap for stickiness and chew, and it keeps things soft for days
Look: pale and glossy; baked goods come out lighter in colour than with honey
Prep: Use cup for cup plus 1 tbsp sugar; keep the oven temperature as written.
Suits: vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free

Add 1 tbsp sugar per cup to make up the sweetness; corn syrup is noticeably less sweet than honey.
Add ¼ tsp lemon juice per ½ tsp of baking soda in the recipe — corn syrup is neutral.
Do not drop the oven temperature; without fructose it browns less, not more.

Light corn syrup is not high-fructose corn syrup; the bottle in the baking aisle is a glucose syrup and behaves differently. Dark corn syrup is a separate product with caramel colour and some flavour.

Date syrup

raisin, prune and caramel

Boiled-down date juice, also sold as silan or date molasses. Thick like honey, mildly acidic like honey, and tasting of raisins and caramel.

Covers: Moisture & hydration; Acid; Sweetness; Browning & color

What these mean

Amount: 1 cup date syrup for 1 cup honey (340 g)
Best for: when a dark, fruity sweetness suits the recipe, drizzling over yogurt, tahini and roasted fruit, spice cakes and Middle Eastern baking, vegan baking where you want depth rather than a neutral sweetener
Taste: raisin, prune and caramel; considerably deeper than honey and slightly less sweet
Texture: the same thick, moist result honey gives
Look: dark brown rather than golden, both in the bottle and in the bake
Prep: Use cup for cup and lower the oven 25°F.
Pantry: Special trip
Suits: vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free

Drop the oven 25°F; its fruit sugars brown fast.
Expect the finished colour to be several shades darker. If that matters — a pale sponge, a white glaze — use agave instead.

Cannot be swapped with pomegranate molasses, which is sharply sour despite a similar name and a similar shelf position.

Brown rice syrup

mild, faintly nutty, and clearly less sweet

Rice starch broken down into glucose. It is only about half as sweet as honey and very thick and sticky, so it needs a real correction in both directions.

Covers: Moisture & hydration; Sweetness
Misses: Acid — not covered; Browning & color — not covered

What these mean

Amount: 1 ¼ cups brown rice syrup for 1 cup honey (340 g)
Then: Reduce another liquid in the recipe by 2 tbsp to account for the extra volume.
Best for: when you want much less sweetness and a lot of stickiness, granola bars and energy balls that must hold together, when it is the syrup you already own, recipes where honey's flavour would dominate
Taste: mild, faintly nutty, and clearly less sweet — the most noticeable sweetness drop of anything on this page
Texture: stickier and chewier; excellent for bars, heavy in a cake
Look: similar golden colour, slightly cloudy, and it browns less in the oven
Prep: Warm to pour, use 1 ¼ cups per cup honey, reduce other liquid by 2 tbsp.
Pantry: Special trip
Suits: vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free

Use 1 ¼ cups and accept that the result will still taste less sweet than the honey version. Nothing brings glucose syrup up to honey's sweetness except adding sugar.
Reduce other liquid by 2 tbsp per cup to allow for the extra volume you added.
Warm the jar in hot water before measuring; it is stiffer than honey and hard to pour cold.

This is a texture swap more than a sweetness swap. It is the reason no-bake bars made with it hold their shape better than honey ones do.

Molasses

bitter and mineral instead of floral; unmistakably a different recipe

Listed because it is often the only other syrup in the cupboard. It is far more bitter and much less sweet than honey, so it needs sugar alongside it to be usable at all.

Covers: Moisture & hydration; Acid
Misses: Sweetness — not covered; Browning & color — not covered

What these mean

Amount: ½ cup molasses + ½ cup granulated sugar dissolved in 2 tbsp water for 1 cup honey (340 g)
Then: Whisk them together until smooth before adding to the recipe.
Best for: when molasses is genuinely the only syrup you have, dark spice cakes, where the bitterness reads as intentional, barbecue sauces and rubs, recipes using 1 tbsp or less of honey
Texture: moist and dense, close to honey
Look: near-black instead of golden — a honey cake becomes a dark gingerbread by sight alone
Prep: Whisk ½ cup molasses with ½ cup sugar dissolved in 2 tbsp water.
Suits: vegan, dairy-free, gluten-free, nut-free

Do not use it cup for cup on its own. Molasses is about two-thirds as sweet as sugar where honey is a fifth sweeter, so a straight swap leaves the recipe under-sweet and bitter.
Cut it half and half with sugar syrup as above, and only in a recipe that can carry a dark flavour.

Not a swap for anything raw or delicate — in tea or on yogurt it is simply unpleasant. Keep it for baked, spiced things.

Don’t swap it here

4 cases

SafetyAny food or drink for a child under 12 months, including honey baked into bread, cake or biscuits.Leave the honey out entirely for that portion, or use maple syrup, agave or plain sugar syrup. This warning applies to honey specifically; we do not give any other infant-feeding advice.
SafetyMead, kombucha, a honey ferment, or a canned or bottled preserve made from a tested recipe.Follow the tested recipe exactly, using the sweetener it names. See the safety notes below.
Baklava syrup, honey cake, honey butter, halva, a hot toddy, or honey on a cheeseboard.Use less honey rather than none, or make something else today. If you must swap, pick a flavour you want in its own right — maple or date syrup — rather than one pretending to be honey.
Nougat, honeycomb toffee, brittle or any candy cooked to a temperature on a thermometer.Use a tested recipe written for the sweetener you actually have. Light corn syrup is the only close stand-in for honey's anti-crystallising job, and even then use a recipe that calls for it.

Safety

3 notes

Infant
Honey must not be given to children under 12 months, including honey baked or cooked into food. It can contain Clostridium botulinum spores that an infant's digestive system cannot handle, and cooking does not reliably destroy them. Use maple syrup, agave or plain sugar instead for that portion.
Source — U.S. Food and Drug Administration (opens in a new tab)
Canning
Do not change the sweetener in a tested canning, pickling or fermenting recipe. Sweeteners differ in water content and acidity, and in a sealed jar the acidity is what keeps the contents safe. Follow the tested recipe exactly as written.
Source — National Center for Home Food Preservation (opens in a new tab)
Diet
Honey is an animal product, so it is not vegan, though it is usually acceptable to vegetarians. Maple syrup, agave nectar, golden syrup, date syrup, corn syrup and plain sugar are all vegan.

If it went wrong

4 fixes

The cake is dark, almost burnt on top, and still raw in the middle.Honey or agave in the batter and the oven left at the recipe's stated temperature — the fructose browned long before the centre set.Tent the top with foil and keep baking until a skewer comes out clean; it will taste fine, just dark. Next time drop the oven 25°F from the start.
The batter looked much looser than the recipe described.You swapped maple syrup in for honey without cutting the other liquid. Maple syrup carries twice as much water.Whisk in 2-3 tbsp of flour per cup of syrup used and bake as normal. It will be slightly denser than intended and edible.
The cake or cookies rose barely at all and taste faintly soapy.The recipe used baking soda and depended on honey's acidity, and you swapped in a neutral syrup — maple, corn or golden — so the soda never reacted.Nothing recovers a baked batch; the taste is the unreacted soda. Next time add ¼ tsp lemon juice or cider vinegar per ½ tsp of soda.
The honey in the jar has gone thick, pale and grainy.The glucose has crystallised out of solution, which every honey does eventually.Stand the jar in hot tap water for 10-15 minutes, stirring once or twice, until it runs clear. It is not spoiled and nothing is lost.

Measure it

8 measures

1 cup honey340 g = 12 ozHeavier than a cup of water because it is mostly dissolved sugar. Warm or oil the cup and it pours out cleanly.
1 tbsp honeyabout 21 gUseful when a recipe calls for a couple of spoonfuls and you are converting to another syrup.
Honey compositionabout 17-18% water, the rest mostly fructose and glucoseMaple syrup is about 34% water, which is the entire reason the maple swap tells you to cut 2-3 tbsp of other liquid.
Sweetness against sugarroughly 1.2 times as sweet as granulated sugarSo ¾ cup honey replaces 1 cup sugar, and in reverse 1 cup honey needs about 1 ¼ cups sugar plus ¼ cup water.
Acidityaround pH 4 — genuinely acidicAcidic enough to react with baking soda. A neutral swap in a soda-leavened batter needs ¼ tsp lemon juice per ½ tsp of soda added back.
Oven correctiondrop 25°F when baking with honeyFructose browns before sucrose does. The same correction applies to agave and date syrup, and does not apply to plain sugar syrup or corn syrup.
1 cup maple syrupabout 320 gSlightly lighter per cup than honey, and much wetter.
Crystallised honeynormal, not spoilageGlucose crystallising out of solution. Stand the jar in hot tap water for 10-15 minutes and stir; it goes clear again.

Questions

7 questions

What is the best substitute for honey in baking?

Maple syrup, cup for cup, with two corrections: cut another liquid in the recipe by 2-3 tbsp per cup (maple syrup is about 34% water, honey only 17%), and drop the oven 25°F. If you want to avoid a maple flavour, use ¾ cup agave nectar instead, which is nearly tasteless and sweeter. If the recipe uses baking soda without baking powder, add ¼ tsp lemon juice per ½ tsp soda when using maple syrup, because honey was supplying the acid.

Can babies have honey substitutes?

The rule we can state clearly is about honey itself: honey must not be given to children under 12 months, in any form, including baked into bread or cake, because it can carry Clostridium botulinum spores that cooking does not reliably destroy. If a recipe for an under-one calls for honey, leave it out or use maple syrup or plain sugar. For anything beyond that, talk to your paediatrician — we do not give infant-feeding advice.

What is a vegan substitute for honey?

Maple syrup is the closest for baking and drizzling; agave nectar is closest for thickness and neutral flavour; date syrup if you want something dark and fruity; golden syrup if you want honey's exact stickiness. All of them are plant-based. Use maple and golden syrup cup for cup, agave at ¾ cup per cup of honey because it is sweeter.

Can I use sugar instead of honey?

Yes: 1 ¼ cups granulated sugar plus ¼ cup water per 1 cup of honey, warmed together just until the sugar dissolves. You need extra sugar because honey is sweeter by volume, and the water replaces the roughly 17% of honey that is water. Two things change. The bake will be paler, because there is no fructose to brown early — so keep the oven at the recipe's temperature rather than dropping it. And it will dry out much faster, since sugar does not hold water the way honey does.

Is agave nectar a 1:1 substitute for honey?

No, use ¾ cup agave per 1 cup honey — agave is sweeter, and a cup-for-cup swap makes the result cloying. It is also thinner than honey and browns even faster, so drop the oven 25°F and brush glazes on in the last few minutes. In its favour, it is nearly flavourless and mildly acidic, so it stays out of the way and still reacts with baking soda.

Why does my honey cake burn on top before it is cooked?

Honey is roughly half fructose, and fructose browns at a lower temperature than the sucrose in table sugar. The top colours long before the middle sets. Bake honey-sweetened batters 25°F below the recipe's stated temperature, start checking 5-10 minutes early, and tent the top with foil if it is dark before the skewer comes out clean.

What can I use instead of honey in a glaze or marinade?

Maple syrup or agave, cup for cup for maple and ¾ cup for agave, and both caramelise well. The one thing to change is your timing: honey is already forgiving under high heat, and these are faster, so brush the glaze on in the last 3-5 minutes rather than at the start, and stay next to the broiler.

Tips for substituting honey

8 tips

Honey must never be given to a child under 12 months, including baked into food. Use maple syrup, agave or plain sugar for anything an infant will eat.
Maple syrup is the everyday swap: 1 cup per cup of honey, minus 2-3 tbsp of the recipe's other liquid, because maple syrup is about 34% water against honey's 17%.
Drop the oven 25°F when baking with honey, agave or date syrup. Their fructose browns before sucrose does, which is why honey bakes darken early.
Honey is acidic, around pH 4. In a recipe leavened with baking soda and no baking powder, it is often the acid the soda reacts with — a neutral swap needs ¼ tsp lemon juice per ½ tsp soda added back.
Honey is about a fifth sweeter than sugar, so use ¾ cup honey per 1 cup sugar going one way, and about 1 ¼ cups sugar plus ¼ cup water per cup of honey coming back.
Oil or warm the measuring cup before you pour honey into it, or wash it out with the recipe's warm liquid; otherwise a tablespoon or more stays in the cup.
Crystallised honey is not spoiled. Stand the jar in hot tap water for 10-15 minutes and stir until it runs clear.
Honey holds water better than any swap here, which is why a honey loaf is still soft on day five. If you swap to plain sugar syrup, plan on eating it within a day or two.

Sources — U.S. Food and Drug Administration — honey and infants (opens in a new tab), National Center for Home Food Preservation (opens in a new tab), USDA FoodData Central (opens in a new tab)

Sweeteners drawer All ingredients