Help! I don’t have any cake flour!

by Julie on January 4, 2010

Welcome to the last installation of the Just Eat It: Brain Food 101 Wheat Flour series! In case you missed the first four, they are here:

And for a special deal on the Chocomize chocolate I gave away last week, keep reading!

NO CAKE FLOUR? NO PROBLEM!

What do you do when a recipe calls for a particular ingredient, but there is none to be found in your kitchen? Do you simply look for another recipe that doesn’t require that ingredient, or cross your fingers that a simple ingredient substitution will do?

Several readers asked me if they could use all-purpose flour instead of cake flour. So I did a little research for them.

[Source]

Apparently, cake flour is finer, lower in protein, and higher in starch than all-purpose flour. Oftentimes, cake flour is chlorinated to break down the gluten proteins to make the texture even more tender.

To make your own cake flour, simply mix 1/4 c. cornstarch with 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour. Make sure it is well-mixed. Really, that’s all you need to do! Your resulting mixture will have more starch and less protein than the all-purpose flour you started with.

Remember, cake flour is typically finer than all-purpose, so the final product’s texture may be grainier.

I was going to do an experiment for you and compare baking with this substitution to baking with cake flour, but I couldn’t find cake flour at any stores near me! So, I guess I’ll be using 1/4 c. cornstarch + 1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour whenever I need cake flour, too!

CHOCOMIZE DISCOUNT!

Drooling over the chocolate in my Chocomize giveaway, but didn’t win? Enter “savvyeat” at checkout on Chocomize’s website to get 10% off!

Tagged as: Baking

{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Allison (Eat Clean Live Green) January 4, 2010 at 11:45 pm

This is a really interesting series! Is there a way to make your own pastry flour? I keep seeing recipes call for whole-wheat pastry flour, but I’ve never found it in stores!

2 Julie @savvyeats January 6, 2010 at 12:34 am

According to joyofcooking.com , you can make pastry flour by mixing 1 1/3 c. all-purpose flour with 2/3 c. cake flour. So I guess if you make your own cake flour, you can then make your own pastry flour…

3 Confused in Va September 13, 2011 at 10:53 am

So if your recipe calls for 5 cups of cake flour do you use 5 cups of all-purpose flour and cornstarch togther?

Thanks,
Confused in Va

4 Julie @savvyeats September 13, 2011 at 12:41 pm: 5 cups total. So mix together the cornstarch + AP flour, and measure out 5 cups of the mixture.

Reply

5 Karla @ Foodologie January 5, 2010 at 12:23 am

Thanks! Good to know I can substitute this!

6 Jessica @ How sweet January 5, 2010 at 6:53 am

It is so hard to find cake flour at my store, too!

7 Shelley Leeman January 5, 2010 at 11:23 am

this is such a great, informative post!

8 Emily (A Nutritionist Eats) January 5, 2010 at 11:42 am

Great info! I literally read a recipe this morning that needed cake flour – I get so overwhelmed by all the different flours I just disregarded the recipe! Now I don’t have to!

9 EatingRD January 5, 2010 at 11:44 am