Sugar Measurements: Granulated, Brown and Powdered
The three common sugars need three different techniques. Granulated sugar pours into the cup and levels at 200 g. Brown sugar gets pressed firmly into the cup, reaching 220 g. Powdered sugar spoons in gently like flour, landing at 120 g unsifted. Use the wrong technique and the error runs 10 to 20 percent.
Sugar looks like one ingredient and behaves like three. This guide covers each technique, the specialty sugars that follow them, and how to substitute one sugar for another by weight without wrecking the texture.
Granulated: the one that behaves
Granulated sugar is the most consistent dry ingredient in the kitchen. Its dense crystals cannot trap meaningful air, so scooped, poured or spooned, a cup weighs 200 g within a couple of grams. It is the one dry ingredient where technique genuinely does not matter.
Caster and superfine sugar, which are just granulated ground finer, measure the same 195 to 200 g. Coarse sugars like demerara and turbinado run slightly heavier per cup, and sanding sugar for decorating is usually measured in spoons anyway.
Brown sugar: the one you pack
Brown sugar is granulated sugar coated in molasses, which makes it damp, clumpy and full of trapped air when loose. Recipes deal with this by specifying packed: press the sugar into the cup with the back of a spoon until it holds the cup's shape when turned out, then level. Packed, a cup weighs about 220 g; loose, closer to 200 g.
That 10 percent gap means an unpacked cup quietly reduces the sugar, moisture and chew of a cookie. Light and dark brown sugar pack identically, differing only in molasses flavour intensity. If your brown sugar has hardened into a brick, a slice of bread sealed in the container overnight softens it.
Powdered: the one you treat like flour
Powdered sugar is ground fine enough to aerate and compress like flour, so it gets the flour treatment: spoon it into the cup and level, giving about 120 g. Sifting first drops the cup to roughly 100 g, a 17 percent difference controlled entirely by word order in the recipe. One cup powdered sugar, sifted means measure then sift; one cup sifted powdered sugar means sift then measure.
For frostings the amount is flexible and you adjust to texture anyway. For glazes and macarons, weigh it, because 20 g of sugar is the difference between a glaze that drapes and one that runs off the cake.
Substituting sugars by weight
Weight for weight, granulated and packed brown sugar swap cleanly in most recipes: 200 g of one for 200 g of the other. Expect brown sugar to bring more moisture, more chew, faster browning and a caramel note. Cookies made with all brown sugar spread less and stay softer; all granulated gives crisper edges and cleaner sweetness.
Powdered sugar is not a baking substitute for granulated. Its 3 percent cornstarch and dust-fine texture change how it dissolves and sets. Going the other way works in a blender: pulse granulated sugar until fine and you have workable powdered sugar for a glaze, weighed, not measured, since home-ground powder settles differently than commercial.
| Sugar | Technique | Grams per cup |
|---|---|---|
| Granulated | Pour or scoop, level | 200 g |
| Caster / superfine | Pour, level | 195 to 200 g |
| Brown, packed | Press firmly, level | 220 g |
| Brown, loose | Spoon, level | 200 g |
| Powdered, unsifted | Spoon gently, level | 120 g |
| Powdered, sifted | Sift, then spoon | 100 g |
Liquid sweeteners are a different conversion entirely
Honey at 340 g a cup and maple syrup at 322 g are nearly twice as dense as granulated sugar, and they carry 17 to 33 percent water. Swapping them for dry sugar changes weight, moisture and browning at once, so it is a recipe adjustment rather than a measurement conversion: the usual starting point is three quarters the weight of honey for the sugar it replaces, with a small reduction in the recipe's other liquid.
For measuring the syrups themselves, our honey and maple syrup pages carry the tables, and a lightly oiled measuring cup releases either one cleanly.