Here's How to Make Cake Flour at Home (2024)

FAQs

How to make your own cake flour? ›

How to make cake flour: Whisk together 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (105g) all-purpose flour and 2 tablespoons (14g) cornstarch. Use in place of cake flour in a recipe, substituting by equal weight or volume.

Making your own cake flour substitute is incredibly easy. Just take out two Tablespoons of flour from one cup of all purpose flour and add in two tablespoons of cornstarch or arrowroot powder to get one cup of cake flour.

It's a great question—but first things first, let's talk about what cake flour even is. Turns out it's a finely milled version of all-purpose flour that's lightened with cornstarch. It contains the least amount of protein of all the wheat flours on the market—about eight percent (compared to all-purpose's 11 percent).

To make two cups of cake-and-pastry flour (cake flour), combine 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour with 1/4 cup cornstarch; proceed with your recipe. The easiest way to do this substitution is to put 2 tbsp of cornstarch in the bottom of a 1-cup measuring cup, then fill the cup as usual with all-purpose flour and level top.

You can, but you should wstch the protein content. Most self rising flours are made from softer wheat, and are closer to pastry flour than to all purpose. That only matters for some applications, but if you want something to be tender, like biscuits, your better off with cake flour.

Cake flour is milled from soft wheat and contains the lowest amount of protein when compared to other flours, around 5 to 8%. For comparison's sake, all purpose flour is usually 10 to 13% protein, which can produce good results for almost any recipe.

We tried using bread flour in several baked good recipes, including yellow cake and sugar cookies, but didn't have success. The cake had a dense, gummy texture and the cookies lacked crispness. There are important differences between wheat flours related to the proteins that form gluten when combined with water.

Make your own - one cup sifted cake flour can be substituted with 3/4 cup (84 grams) sifted bleached all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons (15 grams) cornstarch. Pastry flour is similar to cake flour, although it has not been chlorinated, with an 8-10% protein content and is made from soft wheat flour.

Some of my favorite brands are Swan's Down, King Arthur Flour, and Softasilk. They are all great products and will yield excellent results. But, if you find yourself in a pinch (or in Europe where it is more difficult to find) – don't panic! You CAN use all purpose flour as a substitute with a little doctoring.

Is Bob's Red Mill pastry flour cake flour? ›

Because our pastry flour has less protein than all purpose flour, it's ideal for many lighter baking purposes. In addition to making pastry, it can be used in place of cake flour in your favorite cake recipes. It's also a wonderful flour for biscuits, scones, cookies, muffins, pound cake and more.

You can make a cake flour substitute by mixing a few tablespoons of cornstarch (or a cornstarch substitute, but more on that later) into all-purpose flour, which will help inhibit gluten formation. The result? A cake that's just as tender as it would be if you used store-bought cake flour.

If you have room in your freezer, it can be the best place to store flour, since it will prevent any rancidity and a mere four days in the freezer will also kill any possible pests. If you normally don't do a lot of baking, or if you have access to a large chest freezer, this is a great way to go.

If you don't have cake flour, you can make a cake flour substitute: Begin with 1 level cup of all-purpose flour. Then remove 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour, and add 2 tablespoons of either cornstarch or arrowroot powder to the flour.

Make your own - one cup sifted cake flour can be substituted with 3/4 cup (84 grams) sifted bleached all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons (15 grams) cornstarch. Pastry flour is similar to cake flour, although it has not been chlorinated, with an 8-10% protein content and is made from soft wheat flour.

Because all-purpose flour is designed to work for every type of bake, its gluten content is moderate, at around 10 to 13%. Cake flour, however, has one of the lowest gluten contents, at around 7 to 9%, which makes a much softer, lighter crumb. Another important difference is grain size.