Can I Use Honey Instead Of Sugar For The Pear Pistachio And Rose Cake?

Our answer

Nigella's Pear Pistachio And Rose Cake (from AT MY TABLE) is a gluten-free cake that is made with pears, ground almonds (almond meal), eggs and sugar. These ingredients give the cake its moisture and structure. We would not particularly recommend replacing the sugar with honey as it creates several issues and would require quite a few adjustments to the recipe. Honey is sweeter than sugar, so the amount required would be lower and you would need to also adjust the amount of liquids in the recipe. It also browns more quickly than sugar so the cake could become too dark in colour during baking. Honey is also hygroscopic, so attracts and retains moisture. As the cake is already quite moist it could end up being too damp. Finally, some honeys have quite a strong flavour and this could interfere with the delicate flavour of the rosewater.

If you wanted to use honey in a cake then we would suggest trying Nigella's Honey Chocolate Cake, which uses a combination of honey and muscovado sugar.