Good question, Colleen! Volumetric measurement in baking, while being a standard for a very long time in recipe writing, is unfortunately not the most accurate method. For this reason, we always recommend weighing all ingredients not listed in teaspoon measurements in a recipe. For teaspoon amounts, the measurement generally assumes you are dipping the spoon into the container and some compacting will occur. For brown sugar, the recipe generally lists whether or not it should be packed. Here's a great video on how to measure flour the King Arthur way, if you don't have a scale. 

Still for cup measurements, we understand that older recipes aren't always converted to grams and some guesswork can be involved to determine exactly how much of a compactable ingredient is required. For this we do provide an ingredient weight chart for convenient conversions. I hope you find this helpful!

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