Your Friend Is Baking a Pound Cake and the Recipe

Essay

Your friend is baking a pound cake and the recipe calls for 2 cups of sugar. She has some old honey with crystals in it in the pantry and wants to substitute it for the sugar and calls you up on the phone to find out if the cake will still turn out to be delicious. First of all, she wants to know how she can get rid of these hard crystals in the honey. Tell her how to soften the honey. Give your friend the possible measurement guidelines for the substitution. Any tips for reducing the stickiness of the honey when measuring it in a measuring cup? Should oven temperatures be adjusted? Describe the flavor difference from the substitution in the final baked product.