How Many Cups of Sugar in a Pound?

If you’re making homemade icing (or really, anything sweet), it’s likely your recipe calls for sugar measured in cups. But whether you’re buying brown sugar, confectioners sugar, or even plain white granulated sugar, you’ll likely find that most sugar types are sold by the pound.

To make sure you purchase the right amount, you’ll need to know how many cups of sugar are in a pound. Thankfully, this conversion isn’t too hard to make.

Table of Contents

• Volume to Weight Conversions: What You Need to Know
• Understanding Different Sugar Types
• How Many Cups of Sugar in a Pound?
  • How Many Cups of Powdered Sugar Are in a Pound?
  • How Many Cups of Brown Sugar in a Pound?
  • How Many Cups of Granulated Sugar in a Pound?
• Jump Into Your Next Baking Project!
• FAQs

Volume to Weight Conversions: What You Need to Know

It’s important to be mindful of the fact that when you convert pounds to cups, you’re moving between units of weight and volume. That means that any conversions mentioned here will only apply to the type of sugar being discussed.

For instance, picture one cup of powdered sugar next to one cup of packed brown sugar. Each cup holds the same volume of sugar, but the granulated sugar mass is different from the mass of powdered sugar. That’s because packed brown sugar is much denser than powdered sugar.

Knowing how volume measurements convert to weight can be a great asset. Many chefs prefer to weigh ingredients on a food scale. If you know the weight of a cup of sugar, you can simply measure out the total sugar needed on the scale.

Understanding Different Sugar Types

Before we start converting pounds of sugar into measurements by the cup, it’s important to understand that there are three main types of sugar. Even though all three types are relatively similar, grain size and other variables mean that one cup of some sugar varieties will weigh more than one cup of others. Let’s take a look at powdered sugar (also called confectioners sugar), brown sugar, and granulated white sugar.

Of course, these are just the most common types of sugars. If you want to learn a little more about different sugars (and the best way to use them), check out this interesting and informative video!

How Many Cups of Sugar in a Pound?

Here’s the conversion for each sugar type. It is of course possible to find other forms of sugar, but we’ve stuck to three of the most common ones.

How Many Cups of Powdered Sugar Are in a Pound?

If you make your own icing when baking, chances are good that you’ve had powdered sugar (or confectioners sugar) as an ingredient before. Powdered sugar comes from regular granulated white sugar. The sugar is pulverized until it becomes an incredibly fine powder.

If you’ve ever worked with powdered sugar, you know that it has a lightweight, almost fluffy quality to it. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that it takes more cups of powdered sugar than granulated sugar to make a pound. A pound of powdered sugar is about 4 cups.

Of course, to make sure your baking project turns out as planned, make sure you’re measuring powdered sugar correctly. Use a spoon to scoop sugar into a measuring cup. Don’t just reach a cup measure into the bag and scoop out a full cup; this can pack the powdered sugar too closely and make your cooking or baking turn out poorly.

Once you have spooned enough sugar into the cup measure, you’ll want to make sure it’s level. This part is easy. Take a straight edge (like the back of a knife) and scrape it along the top of the measuring cup. This will make sure the powdered sugar measurement is as accurate as possible.

How Many Cups of Brown Sugar in a Pound?

You’d probably have no trouble identifying a pound of brown sugar. But do you know where it comes from? There are two broad categories of brown sugar: natural and commercial. Natural brown sugar is sugar that has been partially refined or completely unrefined. It has some residual molasses content that gives it a brownish color.

Many types of brown sugar you see on grocery store shelves is commercial brown sugar. This form is made with completely refined white sugar. Molasses (a byproduct of the refining process) is then added back in. This form of brown sugar has a 5% molasses content. When it comes to measurement, you can measure both kinds of brown sugar the same way.

So how many US cups in a pound of brown sugar? Most recipes call for packed brown sugar. This means that the sugar is pushed down (or “packed”) into the measuring cup. As you might expect, a pound of packed brown sugar has a smaller volume than a pound of loose brown sugar.

A pound of packed brown sugar is about 2 1/4 cups. It’s possible you may have a recipe that calls for loose brown sugar. A pound of loose brown sugar is about 3 1/2 cups.

Getting the right measurement of brown sugar is important, too. Most lists of ingredients specifically call for packed brown sugar. Just like with powdered sugar, take a spoon and scoop the brown sugar into a cup measure. Press against it with the back of the spoon to make sure it’s fully packed in. Next, take a straight edge and scrape it across the top of the measuring cup just like you do when measuring powdered sugar.

If you’re new to baking or are just very careful, you might wonder if there’s a way to tell if your brown sugar is packed enough. Fortunately, there is: when you shake out the sugar from the measuring spoon, it should hold its shape before being stirred in with the other ingredients.

How Many Cups of Granulated Sugar in a Pound?

Of course, many recipes for cakes and other sweets call for the classic, white granulated sugar. One pound of granulated sugar equals about 2 cups. You might notice that a pound of granulated sugar has fewer cups than either brown sugar or powdered sugar. That’s because it has the smallest grain of all sugar types. Since the grains fit so closely together in the cup measure, just a cup of granulated sugar can be surprisingly heavy.

Measure granulated sugar just like you’d measure powdered sugar. Spoon the sugar into a measuring cup and then level it off with a straight edge. With regular white sugar, you can pour it into the measuring cup, too. It’s dense enough that it shouldn’t fly up into the air. You probably don’t want to pour powdered sugar — it’s so light that you might find yourself breathing in a cloud of sugar dust!

Jump Into Your Next Baking Project!

Knowing how to convert weight measurements to volume measurements (and vice versa) is an incredibly valuable skill to have. Whether you’re a master chef or just starting out, knowing how to measure and weigh your ingredients is crucial if you want your recipes to turn out perfectly.

FAQs

Still have some questions on how many cups in a pound of sugar? Here are some quick answers to some common questions on sugar weight and volume: