Sugar rush - caster, cane, demerara, granulated, golden, what does it all mean?

[skrullandcrossbones]

I am a bit confused about how all these sugar types differ, and does it really matter which I use in a recipe?

Watching with interest. I too am ignorant.

Caster Is a very fine sugar, white or golden (higher molasses, I think) which blends more easily than granulated, which is a courser crystal, so if you replace caster with granulated your cake might be a bit crunchier than intended.

Cane sugar is usually a courser crystal too, and has a higher molasses content than white.

granulated, caster and icing sugar are much the same but are ground down successively more finely.

I believe cane sugar is just sugar from a cane, and demerara was a type of sugar originally from Guyana, South America but is now grown elsewhere too. Demerara tends to have a more syrupy taste and gives things a more caramel type flavour than ordinary granulated or caster.

I do sometimes substitute in granulated if I don't have enough caster or vice versa.

Waits for someone to come along and correct me

'standard' sugar is granulated - that's the cheapest. Finer stuff, often recommended for cakes, is caster - you can simply stick granulated in a food processor for a little to get the same effect. Much finer is icing.

Cane is made from sugar cane as opposed to sugar beet.

golden means its pale brown - sometimes less refined.

Demerara is more golden - has a slightly toffee taste about it.

If you use demerara for merangues they'll come out golden not white - so if you want white, yes it does matter (and you really need finer sugar ideally for merangues too). But if it says caster and I've only got granulated I don't worry too much.

Just different processes - so natural sugar isn't white. You'd use a dark one for making something like ginger cake or Parkins, or a caster is fine, so you'd use it for biscuits (a granulated is what your put in your tea and if you baked biscuits with it, you would see the little sugar crystals in them). Golden is, I think unrefied.

Have a look here:
whatscookingamerica.net/Information/SugarTypes.htm

You need to know this:

Granulated - coarse; goes in the sugar bowl. For putting in your tea or coffee.
Caster - is finer. For baking.
Icing - powdery. Makes icing. Or dusts over things ot make them pretty.

You can work most other stuff out from there.

"Golden" is not relevant to cooking performance, it's a colour of sugar, something to do with not refining it until it's white. Or maybe dying it, I don't know, it's a marketing thing.

"Cane" - not relevant - made from sugarcane rather than beets.

"demerara" is a kind of brown sugar. Brown sugars come in coarse and fine too. demerara is a coarse sugar. (The finer brown sugars might not perform quite like caster because they are quite sticky.)

very educational, thank you!