Eating cake for dessert may satisfy your sweet tooth, but the sugar in the recipe can lead to weight gain, tooth decay and cause general inflammation in the body that can aggravate conditions like arthritis. You can replace the sugar, though, with a number of natural and chemical alternatives that retain the sweetness, but decrease the number of calories.
Maple Syrup
You can substitute maple syrup for sugar in cake; however, it may change the texture of the dessert, so carefully calculate the volume of maple syrup you add. The Ochef website notes that 3/4 cup of maple syrup is a good alternative to 1 cup of sugar. Additionally, maple syrup adds a distinctive taste to your cake, which may necessitate using a different sweetener. A 3/4-cup portion of maple syrup adds 614 calories to a recipe in comparison to the 774 calories added by a cup of sugar. Maple syrup is slightly higher in fat, though with 0.14 g of fat per serving compared to 0 g in sugar.
Honey
Honey offers a sweet alternative to sugar for cake recipes; for each cup of sugar you would normally add to a recipe, substitute in 7/8 cup of honey. Reduce other liquids by 3 tbsp. as well, to avoid ending up with a soggy cake. Honey does add more calories to a recipe than sugar, although this bee by-product may provide medicinal benefits. Research published in the December 2010 issue of the journal "Biotechnology Research International" indicates that honey has antibacterial properties similar to those of antibiotics. When using honey in place of sugar, add a small amount of baking soda -- 1/4 tsp. -- to neutralize the extra acid honey contributes, and take note that you may need to adjust your baking time as baked goods containing honey brown quicker than desserts with sugar.
Agave Nectar
The syrup that comes from agave, a desert plant, is often called agave nectar, and it has a sweet flavor that makes it a good substitute for at least some of the sugar in cake recipes. The All About Agave website notes that replacing all the sugar in a recipe with agave nectar does not end with good results as it produces an overly-moist cake. You may need to experiment with agave to get the right formulation. For each cup of a sugar, try using 2/3 cup of agave nectar and decrease the amount of liquids by up to 1/3 cup. You add 636 calories to a recipe with 2/3 cup of agave nectar, which is less than a cup of sugar. If you have an interest in adding antioxidants to your diet, you're better off using maple syrup or honey, though -- evidence in the January 2009 edition of the "Journal of the American Dietetic Association" notes that agave nectar and sugar have relatively low antioxidant content, while maple syrup and honey offers an "intermediate" level of antioxidants.
Artificial Sweeteners
A variety of artificial sugar substitutes -- aspartame, sucralose and saccharin -- are available in the grocery store, many of which add no calories to your cake recipe. A benefit of these sweeteners is good for your dental health; they do not promote tooth decay. While these chemical-based sweeteners draw suspicion about their health risks from a variety of groups, no scientific evidence supports the accusation that they cause cancer or contribute to other diseases. Many artificial sweeteners are used in equal amount when used as an alternative to sugar, but the degree of sweetness may call for you to use less of the artificial sweetener.
References
- Cleveland Clinic; Eating Too Much Sugar? It's Time to Tame Your Sweet Tooth; Melissa Ohlson; December 2009
- OChef: Using Sugar, Brown Sugar, Honey, & Maple Syrup Interchangeably
- USDA National Nutrient Database: Syrups, Maple
- USDA National Nutrient Database: Sugars, Granulated
- USDA National Nutrient Database: Honey
- "Biotechnology Research International"; Antibacterial Efficacy of Raw and Processed Honey; DP Mohapatra, et al; December 2010
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