Choose This Type Of Sugar For Ultra-Rich Coffee Cake

Whether you're a coffee drinker or not, you can always enjoy a good piece of coffee cake. This dense and delicious treat is sweet enough to pair well with a rich espresso or fresh cup of joe, but it stands on its own as an excellent dessert with no accompaniment, too. Coffee cake is also pretty easy to make, but a few extra tips can go a long way in turning yours from good to fantastic. For starters, if you want a rich cake with a deep flavor in its sweetness, then reach for dark brown sugar over any other kind of sugar.

We've done a deep dive into the difference between dark and light brown sugar before, and the results boiled down to this: dark brown sugar has a deeper, stronger, and more molasses-leaning flavor. It imparts a complex sweetness to baked goods, and it can actually slightly alter the chemistry of what you add it to since it has higher acidity and moisture content than light brown sugar. Using dark brown sugar in your coffee cake recipe gives the dish a caramel taste, and the higher moisture content keeps it from drying out, even with the crumble topping.

Integrating dark brown sugar into your favorite coffee cake recipe is, well, a piece of cake. We suggest adding it to both your coffee cake batter and in the streusel or crumble that goes on top. Thanks to that aforementioned moisture that helps gluten form, cake made with dark brown sugar is chewier and more stable. You can replace white or light brown sugar at a one-to-one ratio with dark brown sugar, so the substitution is a breeze.

There are plenty of other ways to make a coffee cake, of course, and each one has its pros and cons. Try a cinnamon orange coffee cake for a zippy, tangy wake-up in the morning, or go for a light cinnamon peach that will leave you craving more. A whiskey and caramel-glazed coffee cake tempers the decadent sugary taste with that alcoholic edge, and hazelnut coffee cakes do pair wonderfully with a cup of brew if you're craving a little caffeine. When you really want something deep, luscious, and rich, though, you simply can't go wrong with dark brown sugar. You can add it to basically any recipe, so give it a try, and you'll never go back.