Demerara sugar has a pale-to golden-yellow coloring. Fresh sugar beets are whitish roots that look slightly similar to turnips. Using demerara sugar in pale foods like meringues can discolor them. Because demerara sugar is unrefined, it has a molasses-like flavor that can enhance cookies and other baked goods.Demerara sugar is extracted primarily from sugar cane. Most coffee houses offer demerara sugar as an option for sweetening coffee.o make demerara sugar, sugar producers press sugar cane and steam the juice of the first pressing to form thick cane syrup. The cane syrup is allowed to dehydrate, leaving behind large golden brown crystals of sugar.