The Easy Way to Make Cake Flour Substitute (2024)

FAQs

The Easy Way to Make Cake Flour Substitute? ›

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.

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.

For every cup of cake flour called for in a recipe, measure one cup of all-purpose flour, remove 2 tablespoons of the flour, and then add the flour to a mixing bowl. Add in 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and whisk well to combine. Voila!

Bakers recommend substituting white flour with coconut flour in a ratio of 4:1. In other words, if the recipe calls for 1 cup flour, then you can use ¼ cup coconut flour. You can also increase the number of eggs in the recipe. Traditionally, white cake flour is preferred in baking, as it gives pastries a light texture.

If you're substituting all-purpose flour for cake flour, you'll want to reverse these ratios: Use 2 tablespoons less AP flour per cup of cake flour, and add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch per cup.

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.

Because plain flour contains no extra ingredients, including rising agents, your cakes and pastries won't rise if you use this type of flour as it is. You'll need to add a rising agent, such as yeast or baking powder, into the plain flour if you want your baked goods to rise and become appetisingly fluffy.

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.

Add 1 3/4 teaspoons of baking powder to each cup of cake flour or cake flour substitute and mix well. Sift and measure. Pastry Flour: Combine 3 parts all-purpose flour with 1 part cake flour.

For every cup of self-raising flour called for in your recipe, measure out 1 level cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour. Add 2 tsp. (8 grams) baking powder. Whisk to combine.

What happens if you don't have cake flour? ›

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.

Not enough flour? Your cake mix will be too wet and your sponge will be dense and stodgy.

All-purpose flour and arrowroot powder

Then, instead of adding in two tablespoons of cornstarch, just replace that cornstarch with arrowroot powder instead. This will result in a cake that has that spongy quality you're going for.

To use cake flour in a recipe that calls for self-rising all-purpose flour use 1 cup cake flour and 2 tablespoons, ½ teaspoon baking powder and ¼ teaspoon salt. To use cake flour in a recipe that calls for self-rising cake flour use 1 cup cake flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder and ¼ teaspoon salt.

High-grade flour, also known as bread flour, has a protein — or gluten — content of about 12.7%. ... Cake flour has a protein content of approximately 10% and is usually unbleached. This provides just enough gluten for a good rise, which is enhanced by the flour not having been bleached, and an very tender crumb.