DEBRA'S ANSWER:

Each of the sweeteners I use on sweetsavvy.com has their own characteristics, so you can't just use them interchangably. In particular, you can't substitute a dry sweetener for a liquid sweetener and vice versa because usually the recipe will come out too dry or too moist.

When choosing a sweetener, I'm always looking for how it will affect the character of the recipe. Agave is great for cakes, for example, because you want a cake to be moist, but not so good for cookies because they won't crisp.

Here are some guidelines for substitutions that I use.

You can substitute liquid sweeteners for liquid sweeteners, so if a recipe calls for agave, rice syrup, brown rice syrup, barley malt syrup, vegetable glycerin or maple syrup, you could substitute honey. Remember, though, that each of these liquid sweeteners have strong flavors, which I consider when using them in particular recipes, so if, for example, I've used barley malt syrup to give a "brown sugar" flavor, it won't taste the same with honey.

You can substitute dry sweeteners for dry sweeteners, except...oh dear, now we're getting into another problem...To make it simple, I've found that I can make almost anything using powdered evaporatied cane juice (sold as "organic powdered sugar"), so if I can't figure out another sweetener, that's my "default" natural sweetener.

If your two choices are honey and raw sugar, use the honey to replace a liquid sweetener and the raw sugar for everything else and you may need to adjust the liquid.

Except...stevia has it's own rules, so just avoid the stevia recipes if you can't get stevia.

This is funny because usually I am working on substituting in the other direction!

Debra :-)