Out of honey
Replacing honey with sugar and a little liquid
Colorado State and Mississippi State give the same amount of sugar and the same amount of liquid for a cup of honey. They differ only on the liquid: Colorado State says to use one the recipe already calls for, and Mississippi State says water. Both versions are shown.
Either way the swap uses more sugar than the honey it replaces, and then adds a little liquid on top.
Sources disagree · replaces 1 cup honey
Granulated sugar + a little liquid
The charts below do not print the same thing for 1 cup of honey. We show each one as printed instead of averaging them.
Colorado State Extension — liquid the recipe already uses
| Amount | Ingredient | ≈ grams |
|---|---|---|
| 1¼ cups | granulated sugar | 250 g |
| ¼ cup | a liquid the recipe already uses |
- Colorado State University Extension, Ingredient Substitutions (web page) — checked 2026-09-27
Mississippi State Extension — water
| Amount | Ingredient | ≈ grams |
|---|---|---|
| 1¼ cups | granulated sugar | 250 g |
| ¼ cup | water |
- Mississippi State University Extension, Ingredient Substitutions and Equivalents (Publication 1690, 2024), p. 4 — checked 2026-09-27
Grams are volume-to-weight estimates from USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy): Sugars, granulated — 1 cup = 200 g. Blank means the chart does not say which kind to use, or the unit is not a volume.
Before you swap
- Mississippi State uses honey as its example of a swap that is not exact: next to sugar, honey browns more, brings a flavor of its own, and changes how much other liquid a recipe needs.
- The same chart suggests using substitutions in a pinch, or when a small change in taste or texture does not matter.
How these ratios are checked: our method. Spotted a mismatch with a chart? Tell us and we will recheck the original.