Old Fashioned Soul Food Pound Cake

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You but demand two mutual ingredients– all-purpose flour and cornstarch– to make a homemade cake flour substitute. Sifting them together is key. Use this mixture whenever a recipe calls for cake flour.

Every bit my baking experience grows, I use cake flour more and more in my baking. There's no denying that cake flour produces the softest, almost tender cakes and cupcakes. I try to keep my kitchen stocked with this crucial ingredient, but sometimes I quickly run out when I'chiliad recipe testing. And so in a pinch, I brand this super easy cake flour substitute.

Let'due south back upwardly for a minute though.

What is Block Flour?

Block flour is a low protein flour that'southward milled into a fine consistency. It contains almost 7-9% protein, while all-purpose flour, a harder flour, has anywhere between 10-12%. What does this mean for baking? You see, protein content is directly related to gluten formation. Cake flour'due south lower protein means less gluten is formed as y'all mix the batter together. Less gluten formation equates to a softer, fluffier texture.

Bread flour has a loftier poly peptide content, which means more gluten forms during the mixing process. Super basic breakdown:

1. Cake flour = depression protein = less gluten = softest texture = bang-up for vanilla block
2. All-purpose flour = medium protein = moderate gluten = suitable for annihilation
3. Bread flour = high protein = more gluten formation = hardest texture = bang-up for staff of life

What Does That Mean for Baking?

Cake flour'southward soft, tender texture direct translates into your baked good.

However, some recipes simply can't withstand fine cake flour. Chocolate cake, for example, already has cocoa pulverisation— which is a VERY fine dry ingredient. The combination of cake flour and cocoa powder usually results in a flimsy cake. Additionally, carrot cake and banana cake incorporate additional wet ingredients (the fruits or veggies), and so cake flour isn't really ideal. Y'all need a stronger flour like all-purpose flour.

I stick to block flour when making vanilla cake, white cake, pineapple upside-down cake, red velvet cake, and other cakes where a fluffy texture is favorable. I've been successful substituting block flour for all-purpose flour to create a softer funfetti cake. Make a one:1 exchange with no other changes to the recipe.

How to Brand a Bootleg Cake Flour Substitute

Step one: Measure out 1 cup all-purpose flour. Remove ii Tablespoons.

Pace 2: Measure 2 Tablespoons cornstarch. Add to the flour. Cornstarch contains less gluten than flour, so information technology'due south a wonderful tenderizing ingredient to assistance make cake flour.

Step 3: Sift together TWICE. Basically, sift into a mixing basin in one case. And so run it through the sifter one more time. Sifting not but mixes the 2 ingredients together appropriately, it aerates the mixture so the consistency is similar to real cake flour.

Stride 4: Measure one cup from this mixture. You'll have about one loving cup anyhow, but sometimes sifting can produce more volume since it's adding air.

Items You Need

• Cornstarch
• All-Purpose Flour
• Sifter/fine mesh sieve
• ane cup measuring cup
• i/8 loving cup measuring loving cup or a Tablespoon (1/eight cup = 2 Tablespoons)

PS: Here'south the flour canister pictured higher up. I use these for my flour, granulated sugar, dark-brown sugar, and confectioners' saccharide. They're awesome!

If you're purchasing cake flour, though, I'm happy to share my favorite brands. I honey Swans Down and Softasilk. (Non working with either, only a genuine fan!) I use unbleached when I tin can observe it, otherwise I just stick with bleached. Both brands provide quality results for a good price. Yous can discover cake flour in the blistering aisle next to the all-purpose flour.

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Description

You lot only need two common ingredients– all-purpose flour and cornstarch– to make a homemade block flour substitute. Sifting them together is key. Use this mixture whenever a recipe calls for block flour.

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• one loving cup (125g; 16 Tablespoons) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)*
• 2 Tablespoons (16g) cornstarch

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1. Start with 1 cup all-purpose flour. Remove 2 Tablespoons (16g) so you have 14 Tablespoons full. (Apply the 2 Tablespoons you removed another fourth dimension. But put it back in the flour bag/canister!)
2. Add cornstarch to the xiv Tablespoons of flour.
3. Sift together TWICE. Basically, sift into a mixing basin. Then run it through the sifter one more fourth dimension. Sifting non only mixes the two ingredients together appropriately, it aerates the mixture and then the consistency is similar to existent cake flour.
4. Measure (spoon & level) 1 cup from this mixture. You lot'll take about i loving cup anyhow, simply sometimes sifting can produce more volume since it's adding air.
5. At present yous take 1 cup of cake flour that you tin use in whatever recipes requiring cake flour. If the recipe requires more than 1 cup cake flour, you can exercise this process in bulk, but I discover it'due south better to make each loving cup of block flour separately.

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Notes

1. Basically y'all need 14 Tablespoons (3/iv cup + two Tablespoons; 109g) of spoon & leveled all-purpose flour. Sometimes it's easier to measure 1 loving cup (16 Tablespoons) then remove 2 Tablespoons than to individually measure 14 Tablespoons. Alternatively, you could measure 3/4 loving cup flour then add two Tablespoons.
2. Cornstarch is extra fine and lowers the gluten formation in the all-purpose flour, similar to cake flour. In the UK, cornstarch is referred to equally corn flour. Make sure you are non using cornmeal. They are completely dissimilar ingredients.

Keywords: cake, flour

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