Sugar For Christmas Cake

Our answer

Most rich fruit Christmas cakes use brown sugar in some form, as it it helps to retain moisture in the cake as well as adding a little extra flavour. Muscovado sugars are unrefined or less refined sugars and soft brown sugars are usually refined sugar with molasses added back in. They usually work in similar ways and can be interchangeable. Either colour of brown/muscovado sugar can be used in Nigella's Christmas Cake recipe (from HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESS as the colour is not specified, but other cakes, such as the Easy-Action Christmas Cake and the Traditional Christmas Cake (from NIGELLA CHRISTMAS), use dark brown/muscovado sugar as the slightly more treacly notes of the dark brown sugar pairs well with the Christmassy spices in the cake mixture. So you can generally use the colour of sugar you prefer.

The exception is the Gorgeously Golden Fruit Cake, as this cake is lighter both in colour and in flavourings than a traditional fruit cake and a dark brown/muscovado sugar could detract slightly from the final effect of the cake. We would also avoid using demerara (turbinado) sugar in any of the fruit cakes as the crystals are quite large and will not dissolve quickly enough when the cake batter is made.