Sugar Converter

How Sugar Affects Your Baking

White granulated sugar dissolves cleanly and creates crisp edges on cookies. Brown sugar brings moisture from its molasses content, so cookies come out chewy with soft centers. Powdered sugar dissolves on contact—frostings and delicate batters need that instant dissolve to avoid graininess.

Why Weight Matters More Than Volume

A cup of sugar can vary by 20-30 grams depending on how it's measured. Scooping directly from the bag compacts the sugar. Spooning into the cup and leveling gives lighter results. Professional bakers weigh ingredients because 200 grams is 200 grams, period. Macarons and angel food cake demand that precision—any variation throws off the result.

Swapping Sweeteners Without Ruining Your Recipe

Honey and maple syrup contain water that granulated sugar doesn't. Swap them cup-for-cup and your batter turns into soup. Substitution charts account for this extra liquid, but you'll still need to cut back on other wet ingredients. Liquid sweeteners are acidic enough to throw off your leavening, so a pinch of baking soda neutralizes that and protects the rise.

Which Sugar for Which Recipe?

Cookie texture depends on your sugar choice. White sugar spreads and crisps. Brown sugar keeps things soft and chewy. Most cookie recipes call for both—crisp edges, tender center. Superfine sugar dissolves fastest in cakes and creates the most tender crumb, though regular granulated works if you cream it thoroughly with butter.

Candy making calls for white granulated sugar and not much else. Molasses in brown sugar can trigger crystallization problems, and purity matters at high temperatures. Corn syrup blocks sugar crystals from forming, which is why it appears in so many candy recipes. Meringues and whipped toppings need sugar that dissolves without leaving grit, so superfine or powdered are the right choices there. White sugar gives you control over caramel color—you can watch it shift from pale gold to deep amber with nothing else affecting the shade.

Artificial Sweeteners: Good for Drinks, Tricky for Baking

Sugar adds bulk to batters, helps cookies brown, feeds yeast in bread, and creates texture. Sweetness is just one job out of many. Artificial sweeteners handle the sweetness but skip all the rest. In coffee or lemonade, no problem. In a cake, you get flat, pale, oddly textured results. Baking blends combine sweeteners with bulking agents that act like sugar in the oven.

What Makes Brown Sugar Different

Brown sugar is white sugar with molasses mixed back in. Light brown contains about 3.5% molasses, dark brown closer to 6.5%. Make your own by stirring 1 tablespoon of molasses into 1 cup of white sugar for light, or 2 tablespoons for dark. Molasses makes brown sugar sticky and compressible, which is why recipes call for "packed" measurements—an unpacked cup weighs significantly less.

Measure Sugar the Right Way

Brown sugar gets packed firmly until it holds its shape when you turn the cup over. Powdered sugar gets sifted after measuring, unless the recipe specifically says "sifted powdered sugar," meaning you sift first, then measure. White sugar never gets packed. Use the spoon-and-level method: spoon it into the cup and scrape off the excess with a straight edge.

Keeping Your Sugar Fresh

• Brown sugar — Store in an airtight container with a terra cotta disk or marshmallow. If it hardens, microwave briefly with a damp paper towel.
• Powdered sugar — Keep in a cool, dry place. Sift before using since it clumps from moisture.
• White sugar — Keeps indefinitely when stored dry.