The Type Of Sugar You Should Use For A Softer, Chewier Pound Cake

Whether you are making a classic pound cake or one of the zingy lemon buttermilk variety, it always deserves high-quality ingredients, starting with the sugar. A softer, chewier pound cake can only be achieved if you use the right sugar, and that's brown sugar. Brown sugar separates itself from white sugar with the addition of molasses. This single ingredient not only changes brown sugar's color, but molasses is also responsible for the moisture that white sugar doesn't have, as well as its flavor and slight acidity.

Regular, old granulated white sugar has its place in baked goods, providing a dense, firmness that helps engineer a solid cake that can stand up to a novice cake slicer; however, brown sugar serves a different role It is going yield a pound cake that is moist, soft, and chewy to the bite. The acidity in brown sugar has a side benefit as well. It is going to help your pound cake rise a little higher when it interacts with the baking soda.

Read more: 30 Types Of Cake, Explained

Try A 50-50 Approach

To make a chewier pound cake, do a 1:1 swap between white and brown sugar. But it is important to note, this substitution will also change the taste of your cake. It will have more of a subtle sweetness rather than an outright sugary taste.

If that flavor alteration is too dramatic, you could also shoot for a 50:50 ratio and do half white sugar, half brown. This combination will still give you a thicker, puffier cake with the chewiness you are hoping for, but the pound cake flavor will be more in line with what your taste buds might be accustomed to. If your recipe is all about balance, this approach is the way to go.

It might take you a couple of pound cakes before you find the perfect brown sugar to white sugar ratio that works for you, but if you like to bake, that's part of the fun. That said, if you like the chewy texture of your pound cake, you can also play with your sugar ratios when making cookies. You will notice that when the amount of brown sugar is greater than the white, you will generally get a chewier cookie with a more pillow-like consistency. 

Read the original article on Tasting Table