If you are in a pinch and need cake flour for a recipe, check out this baking tutorial on how to make cake flour, a.k.a. a homemade cake flour substitute.
Don’t get stuck making your favorite cake or biscuit recipes because you don’t have cake flour! Check out this baking tutorial to learn how to make cake flour, as I share my go to “recipe” for a homemade cake flour substitute.
The holiday season is here and with that comes holiday baking! If you are like me, you excitedly wait all year to stock up on baking supplies and bust out those favorite holiday recipes. But even with all that careful planning and stocking up on baking supplies, sometimes you forget an ingredient or two and have no extra time to run to the store.
That’s why over the next few weeks, I thought I would share some holiday baking and cooking tips. Sure, if you are an experienced baker or home chef, you may be aware of some of these kitchen hacks and cooking tips that I plan to share. But some of you may not know how to make your own buttermilk or how to make cake flour substitutes and even if you do, even the best of cooks and bakers can get frazzled during the hustle and bustle of the holidays and forget. So hopefully you all will find these cooking and baking tutorials helpful and learn a thing or two!
First up I thought I would share a recipe/baking tutorial on how to make cake flour. The difference between cake flour and traditional all-purpose flour is the protein content. The protein in flour is what becomes gluten and makes things like pizza crust chewy.
All-purpose flour usually has 10-12% protein and cake flour only has about 8-9% protein. Generally all-purpose flour is great for most cakes, cookies, breads, brownies etc. as you normally want a certain amount of gluten to give you that texture you want in most baked goods. However, certain cakes and biscuits you want to be extra soft and tender in texture, say Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits, some Pumpkin Cake Roll recipes or my go to Sponge Cake recipe, and therefore you want to use cake flour, to achieve this texture.
Almost all grocery stores sell cake flour, and if you are baking multiple cakes or bake a lot using cake flour, I highly recommend just purchasing store bought cake flour to make things easier. However, there have been many times where I go to make a recipe and didn’t realize it called for cake flour or think I have enough cake flour on hand and I am short a cup or two.
Instead of freaking out and stopping everything to run to the store, I make my own cake flour using this handy tutorial.
Most bakers say to use this formula to make a homemade cake flour substitute:
1 cup all-purpose AP flour – 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour + 2 tablespoons cornstarch = 1 cup cake flour
The instructions say to measure one cup of all-purpose flour, using the scoop and level method, and then use a tablespoon to remove 2 tablespoons of all-purpose and then replace those two tablespoons of flour with two tablespoons cornstarch and sift.
HOWEVER, this is messy, more work and doesn’t yield an accurate amount of flour. So, this is the method I use:
2 tablespoons cornstarch + 14 tablespoons all-purpose flour = 1 cup cake flour
I measure two tablespoons of cornstarch into my measuring cup FIRST (so the cornstarch is at the bottom) and then add the approximately 14 tablespoons all-purpose flour, as normal, using the scoop and level method for measuring flour. Once I have one full and leveled cup of flour/cornstarch, I pour the measuring cup into a fine mesh strainer and sift into a bowl. The cornstarch, scooping and leveling, as well as the sifting, transforms the all-purpose flour into light and airy cake flour!
The scoop and level method (sometimes called the spoon-and-sweep method) for measuring flour, is where you use a spoon to scoop the flour from it’s container (the bag or your storage container), one spoonful at a time into the dry measuring cup. Once the dry measuring cup is heaping/overflowing with flour, use the back side of a butter knife to scrape off the excess flour and level it off. Besides using a kitchen scale, this method is the most accurate method for measuring any type or amount of flour.
So now that you know any easy cake flour substitute, you can make ANYTHING calling for cake flour. From my favorite Homemade Funfetti Cupcakes or go to recipe for Angel Food Cake.
Did you like this baking tutorial on How to Make Cake Flour? What other baking or cooking tutorials, tips or hacks would you like me to share?
For other helpful cooking tutorials, check out these posts:
Baking Supply Organizing Ideas
Homemade Microwave Popcorn
Homemade Chicken Stock {Plus Stock vs Broth 101}
Blackberry Cobbler in a Mug {Plus Microwave Cleaning Hack}
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 14 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- Using a one tablespoon measuring spoon, measure the cornstarch by scooping it out of the container and leveling it off with the back of a butter knife.
- Add the two tablespoons of cornstarch to a one cup dry measuring cup.
- Using a large spoon, measure the flour into the dry measuring cup with the corn starch; scooping out the flour from the bag/container one spoonful at a time.
- Continue measuring the flour, one spoonful at a time into the dry measuring cup until the flour is heaping or overflowing from the dry measuring cup.
- Using the back of a butter knife, scrape off the excess flour.
- Pour the cup of flour/cornstarch into a fine mesh strainer, and sift into a large bowl.
- Continue with your recipe as directed, using one cup of the homemade cake flour for every one cup store bought cake flour called for in the recipe.
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