What is it and what does it do?
People use liquid sweeteners instead of sugar for many reasons. Sometimes it’s for a special flavour like honey or maple syrup. Sometimes it’s to increase moisture.
Compare the control (white sugar) with any of the liquid sweeteners and we can see the difference on why sugar is so important in many recipes. It makes more of an impact than simply making the cake sweet. It changes the colour, the texture, the flavour, the aroma, the size, etc.
It’s obvious that across the board, the cakes are flat, sunken, and dense. Even the sides is pinched like an hourglass shape. This is because there’s no solid sugar granules to help cut air into the butter, which helps a cake rise. So if you are substituting sugar with a liquid sweetener in a recipe, you can try adding baking powder or soda to help the cake rise. You can also consider only replacing part of the sugar, so the sugar can still help leaven, but you will also get the flavours and benefits of a liquid sweetener.
It is helpful to have a mix of dry sugar and liquid sweetener to get the best of both worlds. Some dry sugar is required to cream the cake or baking powder/baking soda added to make a light cake.
All the cakes are still visibly wet in the middle when the cake with white sugar was done. It does take longer to evaporate off the liquid. So understandably, the liquid sweetener cakes stayed moist for 2 more days than the control.
If you are using it as a substitution for a recipe that calls for dry sugar, remember to decrease the liquid accordingly. Generally it’s easier to substitute dry for dry and liquid for liquid. But with some trials and testing it’s still fairly easy to do. General guideline is for 1 part of liquid sweetener used, remove 0.25 part liquid from recipe. And let’s be honest, the “tests” and “mistakes” I make are just excuses for me to consume one more batch.
Health implications
Fat has a bad rep when it comes to health.
What’s tested
Five common household liquid sweeteners were tested. Realistically most recipes using liquid sweeteners still uses some sugar, but for the sake of this test I wanted to see only the effects of the liquid.
I skipped agave in the hopes that I can make a sugar substitute for health reasons post in the future. Sign up to my newsletter so you will when that article is up!
What does each ingredient do?
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Corn syrup is an “invert sugar” and that means it can prevent crystallization. This is special for corn syrup and not a property that is shared with other liquid sweeteners and that’s why this is the most common reason why corn syrup is added to a recipe. But since cake’s sugars are not really affected by crystallization, it doesn’t really “shine” in the cake test. It also helps keep cake moist.
Don’t confuse this with high-fructose corn syrup, which is sweeter than sugar and mostly used in processed foods. Corn syrup isn’t as sweet as sugar, so it can be used for bulk in the cake without adding too much sweetness.
It helps to keep cakes moist, but it is much more important for recipes that needs to avoid crystallization, such as marshmallows, caramels, icing, etc. In those recipes, it helps to avoid the grainy texture and hardening of the products.
In terms of taste, it is overall not as sweet as sugar. We sense its sweetness slightly slower than sugar and it lingers longer as an aftertaste. Other than that, the taste is quite neutral, which makes it a good choice if you don’t want the sweetener to add other flavours.
Milk with a 60% of its moisture removed and then about 20% of sugar added. Given this ingredient list, it’s actually more than just a sweetener that’s being added. It’s also adding the flavour of milk. Considering that boiled off condensed milk becomes dulce de leche, it actually packs in quite a bit of flavour.
It’s actually not seen in baking recipes for cakes often. A quick Google search showed southern pound cakes to use condensed milk instead of sugar, but not much else. It’s used a lot more in other custard style desserts, dulce de leche, puddings, or pie fillings, etc.
Honey is amazing. It adds a distinctive flavour to the cake, contains antioxidants. It will help leaven the cake if it uses baking soda because it is slightly acidic.
Honey is sweeter than white sugar, about 1 part honey to 1.25-1.5 sugar, so if something uses 125g sugar, it can be replaced with 100g honey. Since sugar causes browning and honey has a high sugar concentration, try lowering the temperature in the oven by about 25C/75F so that it doesn’t brown.
Honey itself is nutritious, but it does have the same amount of calories as sugar. It also has the same effect as sugar for diabetics, but because it is sweeter, less can be added to achieve the same results.
Tips:- Doesn’t expire. How awesome is that? (I hoard it, I have about 6 jars sitting in my cupboard now)
- Honey sometimes becomes cloudy overtime. This is perfectly safe, it’s just the sugar inside crystallizing, a sign that it’s good quality honey. You can revive it by putting it in a warm water bath and let it sit until it's room temperature again.
As a Canadian this is my favourite out of the list. It gives cakes a unique flavour.
The one that I used is the happens to have the thinnest consistency out of all sweeteners I tested, so it does have more liquid than the others. But this may not be the case for your maple syrup.
There are 5 different grades. The grade distinguishes its attributes and not an indication of quality. Sometimes you may want a stronger taste, sometimes more delicate.The different grades are below.
- Grade A Golden, Delicate Taste
- Grade A Amber, Rich Taste
- Grade A Dark, Robust Taste
- Grade A Very Dark, Strong taste
- Processing grade
Molasses is a liquid sweetener that can add a more complex flavour to the cake. Molasses may be slightly acidic and could react with baking soda. It retains moisture even better than brown sugar, and being a liquid itself, already provides more liquid to begin with.
There are 3 grades to molasses. The darker the molasses, the more caramelisation, which means that it is less sweet and more bitter.
First Lighter in colour and sweeter. Used in things that needs a lighter touch, like a marinade, sauces, etc.
Second Darker in colour, less sweet, thicker. Usually what is used in gingerbread cookies.
Blackstrap Darkest in colour, bitter, even thicker. Has minerals and vitamins that white sugar has been stripped off of already. Sometimes used as a health food item.
Molasses is a liquid sweetener that can add a more complex flavour to the cake. Molasses may be slightly acidic and could react with baking soda. It retains moisture even better than brown sugar, and being a liquid itself, already provides more liquid to begin with.
There are 3 grades to molasses. The darker the molasses, the more caramelisation, which means that it is less sweet and more bitter.
First Lighter in colour and sweeter. Used in things that needs a lighter touch, like a marinade, sauces, etc.
Second Darker in colour, less sweet, thicker. Usually what is used in gingerbread cookies.
Blackstrap Darkest in colour, bitter, even thicker. Has minerals and vitamins that white sugar has been stripped off of already. Sometimes used as a health food item.
Molasses is a liquid sweetener that can add a more complex flavour to the cake. Molasses may be slightly acidic and could react with baking soda. It retains moisture even better than brown sugar, and being a liquid itself, already provides more liquid to begin with.
There are 3 grades to molasses. The darker the molasses, the more caramelisation, which means that it is less sweet and more bitter.
First Lighter in colour and sweeter. Used in things that needs a lighter touch, like a marinade, sauces, etc.
Second Darker in colour, less sweet, thicker. Usually what is used in gingerbread cookies.
Blackstrap Darkest in colour, bitter, even thicker. Has minerals and vitamins that white sugar has been stripped off of already. Sometimes used as a health food item.
