Bake
What Is Caster Sugar? Does It Really Make a Difference in Baking?
This superfine sugar is particularly popular in the U.K.
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23 Comments
suzanne
December 30, 2021
Superfine sugar is readily available in grocery stores in California. C&H sells it as Baker’s Sugar and as Superfine Sugar in various sizes- including the handy half-gallon milk carton size.
StacyT
June 23, 2020
What happens if I over-process the sugar and it’s essentially like powdered sugar? How will it affect the cake/cookie/muffin recipe that calls for granulated or superfine sugar?
Janice C.
August 1, 2019
What is golden caster sugar? Each time I research it I get a different answer, from dark brown sugar to Turbinado.
Danuta G.
March 28, 2018
An fyi for Canadian bakers: fruit sugar is the same as caster sugar. It's a tad more expensive (works out to about $1 more for a 1kg bag) but as someone below mentioned, worth the money in terms of wear and tear on your food processor!
littleknitter
December 17, 2017
I lived in the UK for a few years and the granulated sugar over there has much, much larger crystals than US granulated sugar. Domino's granulated sugar is much closer in size to UK caster sugar than it is to UK granulated sugar and is a perfectly fine substitute if you're living in the US.
Ann W.
November 9, 2018
I'm an American living in the UK and that's been my observation too: on the fine=>coarse spectrum I would say:
US confectioners'/UK icing
US superfine
UK caster
US granulated
UK granulated
US confectioners'/UK icing
US superfine
UK caster
US granulated
UK granulated
SweetM
December 17, 2017
Is C&H Baker’s Sugar the same as caster sugar?
Lindsay-Jean H.
December 17, 2017
Yes, caster sugar, castor sugar, baker’s sugar, and superfine sugar are all different names for the same thing!
Leslie B.
December 30, 2020
YES and it is readily available in super markets, so I am not sure why the article said it is hard to find ‘caster sugar’ or that it is prohibitively expensive. These are absolutely just different names for the same product... (I am an American who has lived in London for 25 years...)
Gina F.
December 16, 2017
I measure dry ingredients by weight. What would 1 cup of caster sugar equal in grams? For granulated sugar, I use 1 cup equals 198 grams. Thanks!!
Lindsay-Jean H.
December 17, 2017
I use 200 grams for both 1 cup of regular and caster sugars. Helen Goh weighs 1 cup of caster sugar as 225 grams and 1 cup of granulated sugar as 220 grams.
Victoria C.
December 14, 2017
I get India Tree Caster and India Tree Fondant & Icing sugar from Amazon all the time as I have so many UK cookbooks. The Caster comes in 3-pound containers, and the Fondant comes in 2-pound containers. My issue is always with self-rising Flour, which is different from American self-raising flour. Sweet has a workaround on Page 353. Has anyone tried it? I don't get British self-rising flour because it so not easily available, and when I have found it, it (for instance at Myers of Keswick on Hudson Street, NYC), it has not had a long enough shelf life for me to spring for it. By the way, I use Lyle's Golden Syrup instead of corn syrup when I make Jeni's Sweet Cream Ice Cream. It is fantastic and gives it a rather elusive slightly caramel flavor.
Lindsay-Jean H.
December 14, 2017
I love the golden syrup for corn syrup sub in Jeni's, I'm copying that!
Sandra R.
December 14, 2017
I used the "make your own" approach for years, until I realized I had gone through 2 food processor bowls in 5 years. Factoring in the wear and tear on my food processor, I decided that buying "baker's sugar" was worth the price!
Mona P.
December 14, 2017
Do you use a 1:1 ratio when substituting caster sugar for granulated? I would assume so for weight, but wouldn't 1:1 by volume result in more sugar with caster sugar than with the original granulated?
Lindsay-Jean H.
December 14, 2017
Yes, you do. I know, it does seem like that would be the case, but from everything I've seen, both caster sugar and granulated sugar have the same 1 cup = 200 grams measurement.
Mona P.
December 14, 2017
Hmm, I've seen caster sugar as weighing out to 225 g for a cup while granulated sugar is 200 g per cup. If that is actually true, and you substituted one cup of granulated sugar for the recipe recommended once cup of caster sugar, then the recipe would be shortchanged by 25 g of sugar. I wonder if that could be causing at least some of the changes in texture?
Lindsay-Jean H.
December 14, 2017
I stand corrected! The response from Helen: "one cup of caster sugar here is 225g and granulated sugar comes in at 220g. I think it is less likely that the reduced quantity of sugar (if the conversion falls short) is what is affecting the texture. My hunch is that the granulated sugar perhaps does not dissolve as efficiently during creaming/beating etc. The texture as a result would be coarser or drier.”
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