Baking with Sucralose, Stevia and Inulin: How Much Replaces a Cup of Sugar

Short answer: sucralose is about 600 times sweeter than sugar, so 1 cup of sugar (200 g) matches roughly 0.33 g of sucralose. Stevia Reb A, at 200-300 times, needs about 0.67-1 g for the same cup. Neither one replaces the bulk, browning or moisture that sugar brings to a cake, which is why bakers pair them with a bulking ingredient such as inulin.

High-intensity sweeteners solve only one of sugar's jobs in baking: sweetness. This guide gives the conversion table in grams, explains what else you have to replace, and shows a simple dilution trick so you can measure fractions of a gram without a laboratory balance.

How much sucralose or stevia replaces sugar?

The conversion uses each sweetener's sweetness relative to sugar: sucralose about 600 times, stevia (Rebaudioside A) about 200-300 times, as listed by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. Divide the weight of sugar by that factor.

Sugar replaced	Sucralose (~600×)	Stevia Reb A (~200-300×)
1 tsp (4.2 g)	about 0.007 g (7 mg)	about 0.014-0.021 g
50 g (1/4 cup)	about 0.08 g	about 0.17-0.25 g
100 g (1/2 cup)	about 0.17 g	about 0.33-0.5 g
200 g (1 cup)	about 0.33 g	about 0.67-1 g

Cup and teaspoon weights are from USDA FoodData Central (1 cup of granulated sugar = 200 g, 1 tsp = 4.2 g). Sweetness equivalence is a starting point: perceived sweetness changes with fat, acidity and temperature, so taste the batter and adjust.

How do you measure 0.17 g at home?

Most kitchen scales read to 1 g, which is useless at these amounts. Make a stock solution instead:

1. Weigh 1 g of sucralose on a scale that reads to 0.01 g.
2. Dissolve it in water and top up to exactly 100 mL. Each millilitre now holds 10 mg of sucralose.
3. Measure by volume: 100 g of sugar equals about 17 mL of the solution; 1 cup equals about 33 mL.
4. Count that water as part of the recipe's liquid, and reduce the milk or water by the same amount.
5. Label and refrigerate the solution, and make a new one rather than keeping it for weeks.

The same method works for stevia Reb A: 1 g in 100 mL gives 10 mg per mL, so 100 g of sugar equals about 33-50 mL.

What does sugar do in baking that sweeteners do not?

Sugar is a structural ingredient, not just a flavour. When you remove it, you lose:

• Bulk and volume: 200 g of sugar replaced by 0.33 g of sucralose leaves a large hole in the recipe. Texas A&M notes that sucralose works well in baking when bulking fillers are added.
• Browning: stevia is heat-stable but does not caramelize, so cookies and crusts stay pale.
• Foam structure: stevia is not suited to meringues, which depend on sugar to stabilize the egg-white foam.
• Moisture and tenderness: sugar holds water in cakes; without it, crumb can turn dry and dense.

That is why the most reliable approach is to replace part of the sugar rather than all of it, and to put back some of the missing bulk.

Where does inulin fit?

Inulin from chicory root is a fine white powder with a mild, slightly sweet taste. It contributes little sweetness but brings back body. Research on its technological properties (Franck, 2002) describes inulin as improving the stability of foams and emulsions and forming a fat-like gel in water, while its shorter-chain relative, oligofructose, behaves more like sugar and glucose syrups and is often combined with high-intensity sweeteners.

In practice, inulin is used to rebuild volume and mouthfeel where sugar was removed. Because it is not a one-to-one sugar replacer, test it in small steps: replace a portion of the removed sugar weight with inulin, bake one tray, and compare texture and browning before scaling up.

How do you convert a recipe, step by step?

1. Pick the recipe type. Muffins, quick breads and brownies tolerate sugar reduction best. Meringues, caramel and crisp cookies depend most on sugar.
2. Decide how much sugar to remove, starting with part of it rather than all.
3. Calculate the sweetener dose from the table for the sugar you removed.
4. Replace bulk with inulin for part of the removed sugar weight.
5. Adjust liquid if you used a stock solution or if the batter looks dry.
6. Watch the bake. Products with less sugar brown less, so judge doneness by texture and a skewer, not by colour alone.
7. Record the results in grams so you can repeat or adjust the next batch.

For the same sweeteners in drinks rather than cakes, see our comparison of erythritol, stevia, sucralose and monk fruit.

Are sucralose and stevia permitted in Canada?

Yes. Health Canada lists sucralose among approved sugar substitutes, and purified stevia extract (steviol glycosides) is regulated as a food additive approved for use in various foods sold in Canada.

Sources

• Texas A&M AgriLife Extension (Dinner Tonight) — Baking with sugar alternatives: sweetness factors, browning and bulking notes.
• Health Canada — Sugar substitutes: regulatory status of sucralose and steviol glycosides.
• USDA FoodData Central — Sugars, granulated: weight of 1 cup and 1 teaspoon.
• Franck A., 2002 — Technological functionality of inulin and oligofructose (British Journal of Nutrition): texture and bulking properties.

LiquidShop supplies food-grade sucralose, stevia Reb A and organic inulin from Canadian stock. Formats and specifications are on each product page, starting with sucralose.