If yous've always wondered about cake flour, all your questions are answered here! Learn all about why this ingredient is often used in recipes, what it is, where to get it, and how it's used.

Square image of a copper measuring cup filled with cake flour, on a dark background.

I've been using cake flour in my block and cupcake recipes since way earlier I ever even started this website. If yous've been tuning in to my Live recipe demos (11am EDT on Facebook and Instagram!), then y'all've probably heard me explicate why.

It's i of the number one questions I get asked by readers. So I thought it was about time I intermission it all down and explain it in a mail service.

Vertical image with text overlay of a copper measuring cup filled with cake flour.

This is going to be the first in a series of non-recipe posts! I'grand tentatively titling the serial "Bake like a Boss: tips & tricks that will take your baking to the next level." What practise you think?

So, today's topic is cake flour. I have a lot of cake and cupcake recipes on this site, and almost of them call for cake flour.

WHAT IS CAKE FLOUR?

Block flour is a flour that is very finely milled from soft winter wheat. It has a lower protein content than all-purpose flour, and it is finer, lighter, and softer. It's as well bleached, and so the color is paler and the grain is less dense.

Side-by-side comparison of cake flour and all-purpose flour.

Because of the lower protein content, cake flour produces less gluten. You know when you're making bread and it gets that chewy, elastic texture to it? So yummy right?

Well, it'south good when y'all're talking virtually soft pretzels, but it's really not and then good when you're talking about cakes.

When information technology comes to cakes, nosotros want them to be light, soft, and tender, with a fine, close crumb. And that is exactly what you lot volition get if you use cake flour!

The first time I baked a block with cake flour, I was astonished. It sounds silly, but it was kinda life-changing for me. I could not get over the departure information technology fabricated in that cake.

Always since then, I swear by information technology! I mean, if you're going to go to the trouble of baking a cake from scratch, wouldn't you lot want information technology to be the best possible cake? Ever since that first block, all those (cough! coughing!) years ago, I've always made certain to keep cake flour in my pantry.

WHERE DO You GET CAKE FLOUR?

Cake flour is pretty like shooting fish in a barrel to find here in the US. I've never been to a supermarket that doesn't carry it. Information technology's ever found in the baking aisle, correct in the same general surface area as all-purpose flour.

In that location are all sorts of flours: bleached all-purpose, unbleached all-purpose, staff of life flour, pastry flour, whole wheat flour… the list goes on and on. Cake flour is but another one of those, unique in its purpose, and information technology can be plant right aslope all the others.

It can also be ordered online. Click here to see several different options.

Some of my favorite brands are Softasilk, Swan's Down, Male monarch Arthur Flour, and Bob's Red Mill. They are all bully products and will yield excellent results.

If yous do not alive in the Us, you lot might have a lilliputian more difficulty. As far as I know, there is goose egg quite the same available in Europe. Cake flour is Non "self-raising flour," and it is NOT "sponge flour." The closest thing would be "plain flour," sifted with a little cornstarch (see "Cake Flour Substitute" below).

Vertical image of cake flour being sifted into a glass bowl.

CAN I But USE ALL-PURPOSE FLOUR INSTEAD OF Block FLOUR?

In a compression, yes. Only if yous actually want to bake like a dominate, I'd highly recommend keeping a box of cake flour in your pantry.

If you use all-purpose flour, you will notice that your cakes and cupcakes will have more than of an open nibble. In other words, at that place will be bigger pockets of air inside the block.

They will also be a petty more dense and chewy. I adopt the light, soft texture of cakes that have been baked with cake flour.

CAKE FLOUR SUBSTITUTE

If you're still not convinced, or if you live in a part of the world where cake flour is not available, yous can create a reasonable facsimile by replacing 2 tablespoons (for every cup) of all-purpose flour with cornstarch.

Cornstarch has very little protein and information technology will help to lighten the all-purpose flour. Depending upon where you are in the world, information technology may go past the name "corn flour." It is white and powdery. Information technology is NOT corn meal, which is ordinarily yellow and gritty.

Cake flour substitute: vertical image of a copper spoon placing cornstarch into a small brown bowl.

Sift the flour and cornstarch together, then measure, either by weight or past lightly spooning into a measuring cup and so leveling off. NEVER pack flour into a measuring cup!

With that said, but acquit in mind that this substitution is withal not exactly the aforementioned thing as cake flour, and and so the results volition exist ameliorate merely not identical.

Near of the recipes here on Baking a Moment are measured past cups and teaspoons, considering that's the way the majority of my readers bake. But if you prefer to mensurate your ingredients past weight, be sure to bank check out my free printable Weight Conversion Chart.

Free Printable Weight Conversion Chart Graphic

IS Cake FLOUR GLUTEN-FREE?

No, block flour is not gluten-gratuitous. It is still made from wheat. While information technology does produce less gluten than all-purpose flour, information technology's still non recommended for people who have a gluten intolerance.

If yous want to bake a gluten-free cake or cupcake, substitute all the flour in the recipe for a gluten-free flour alloy. Wait for one that subs i for 1 (in other words, 1 cup of gluten-free flour is equivalent to one cup of all-purpose flour). Hither are some good options:

  • King Arthur Flour Gluten-Free Measure for Measure out Flour
  • Bob's Cherry Manufacturing plant Gluten-Free All-Purpose Blistering Flour
  • Cup4Cup Multi-Purpose Gluten-Costless Flour
  • Pamela's Products Gluten-Free All-Purpose Flour Blend
  • Better Concoction Gluten-Costless Flour
  • Namaste Foods Gluten-Gratis Organic Perfect Flour Blend

WHAT Can I USE Cake FLOUR FOR?

Obviously cake flour is great for cakes. Just what if you don't broil a lot of cakes and you want to use up what you have left over?

Adept news! Cake flour is great in all kinds of recipes. Whatever time you're blistering something that wants to be airy and delicate, cake flour is a corking pick.

Here are a few examples:

Things you can make with cake flour image collage

  1. Scones
  2. Biscuits
  3. Muffins
  4. Pancakes
  5. Waffles
  6. Quick Breads

But I would stick with all-purpose flour for things like cookies or pie crust, and apply breadstuff flour for anything yeasted (such as pizza dough or dinner rolls.

Horizontal image of a copper measuring cup filled with cake flour.

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