has anyone subbed brown sugar for half of the white sugar in the mermaid vanilla cake recipe?

i love the taste colette peter's "heavenly white cake" with brown sugar but the texture just doesn't do it for me.

i like the texture of the mermaid, and the taste is great, but i want more "vavavoom" (yes, i know that is a lot to ask of a cake ) from it.

has anyone monkeyed with this recipe with brown sugar or anything else to boost/change the flavor?

diane