A stable Cartesian grid staircase-free finite-difference time-domain formulation for arbitrary material distributions in general geometries is introduced. It is shown that the method exhibits higher accuracy than the classical Yee scheme for complex geometries since the computational representation of physical structures is not of a staircased nature, Furthermore, electromagnetic boundary conditions are correctly enforced. The method significantly reduces simulation times as fewer points per wavelength are needed to accurately resolve the wave and the geometry. Both perfect electric conductors and dielectric structures have been investigated, Numerical results are presented and discussed.