Fun Fact: Castles Can Be Made from Brown Sugar

Here is a bowl of brown sugar with a perfect sandcastle tower turned out in the middle of it, and my eggs lined up behind. Fun fact: castles can be made from brown sugar.

It holds its shape for the same reason recipes tell you to measure it "packed". Brown sugar is white sugar coated in molasses, which keeps the crystals slightly damp and sticky, so they cling together like wet sand. That moisture is also why brown sugar gives you chewier cookies and softer cakes, and why it sets into a brick if you leave it open to the air. A slice of bread or a piece of damp terracotta in the container will soften it again.