Let’s talk about cake flour!
You might recognize cake flour as that ever-present box in the back of your parents’ refrigerator. Maybe that’s just me. My mom always had a box of cake flour in the fridge.
Cake flour is a finely ground flour used in many (but not all) cake recipes. Cake flour has a lower protein content of about 8%, as compared to a 10-11% protein content in all-purpose flour. The protein is important! It helps to add structure to our cakes. The lower protein content of cake flour ensures that our cake layers have structure and a soft and light (not tough) texture. Cake flour is especially important in chiffon or Angel Food Cake. Cake flour is our friend, and we should have it in our pantry… but we probably don’t.
You may be fresh out of cake flour when the need for cake arises. I understand this all too well! Luckily, we can easily make a substitute for cake flour using ingredients you probably already have in your kitchen: all-purpose flour and cornstarch. Good news, right?
How To Make Cake Flour:
Measure out 1 cup of all-purpose flour. Remove 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and place it back in your flour canister. Replace the removed all-purpose flour with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.
Sift flour 5 times. Yes… 5 times. Sifting the flour and cornstarch together will help thoroughly combine the mixture and help to lighten and aerate the flour.
By replacing a bit of the all-purpose flour with cornstarch, we’re removing some of the gluten and replacing it with a tenderizing element. But cornstarch is so neutral, how is it a cake tender? Well, cornstarch works alongside other cake ingredients (like sugar, for example) to inhibit gluten development. It’s ingredients like sugar and cornstarch that compete with the flour for liquid absorption (think: eggs and buttermilk) in a recipe. If flour gets to gobble up all of the liquid in a recipe and is worked in a mixer (like we work cake batter), it’s gluten development will be off the charts… and you’ll basically have a baguette. Cornstarch (and sugar) makes the flour share liquid, easing the gluten development and creative beautifully tender cake texture.
King Arthur Flour makes my favorite store-bought cake flour. I love it because it’s an unbleached cake flour (pretty rare because cake flours are usually bleached), has no weird chemicals, and has a slightly higher protein content that helps make consistently great cakes.
If you’re like me and want to read majorly nerdy textbooks about food, Understanding Food: Principles and Preparations is a massive reference book about everything from food service to food science. It’s a splurge. The used book is the way to go.
Happy baking this December!
Past Baking 101 lessons:
Baking 101: How To Read A Recipe
Baking101: Must We Sift This Flour?
Baking 101: Why We Use Unsalted Butter
Baking 101: The Difference Between Baking Soda and Baking Powder
Baking 101: The Difference Between Dutch Processed and Natural Cocoa Powder
Rosa
Hi, I am from South Australia and was wondering whether Self Raising flour is the same as cake flour.
LT
Question: when you sift it, it gets fluffier and that 1 cup ought to measure a little bigger than one cup, so do you measure it back down? I assume so, but I want to be sure.
Ann Madison
I am purchasing flour from Italy, cause it is not modified like our
American flour (which the wheat grain was altered in 50’s.
By avoiding the American wheat I can control my blood pressure with out medication.
So I am going to try your -2 tblsp and add 2tblsp of cornstarch. Thank You.
Mary Stathis
To substitute for cake flour—–can I use unbleached flour????
Munchy
thanks for explaining this better and for the book reference
LindaJ
Thanks for the great tip, I had no idea you could substitute for cake flour! I also love KAF cake flour but it’s hard to find.
The Queen of Dreaming
Very interesting, thanks!!
http://justsem.wordpress.com/
Heather
my mom always had cake flour too…but not in the fridge.
hynespet
This is so helpful! Thanks Joy (:
Pri
Awesome post! I did know already about the substitute but not entirely the reason why. I loved to understand the chemistry behind it. Thank you Joy!!
Monica
This is very handy, particularly since I just realized Stop n Shop, which has been my source for King Arthur cake flour, seems to no longer carry it! I found one last box at Whole Foods the other week…hoping they re-stock! Thank you!
My Kids Mom
Is giving the flour a whirl in a food processor as good as sifting it 5x?
Elisabeth
This is so fantastic, Joy! I use 1/2 regular, 1/2 pastry-cake flower (I buy mine from whole foods) to make any of your scones. They always turn out light, fluffy, and irresistible! Now, if only I could find a way to make some Vegan scones that don’t taste like bricks, my life would be complete!
Grace
Instead of sifting 5 times, can I just run the mixer with a wire mix in the stand mixer for a few minutes?
Grace
*wire whisk
Angela
Invaluable. Next question – when does one use cake flour? I rarely ever see it in recipes (older books usually), but some folks use nothing but.
Lisanne
This is brilliant and another reason why we love and appreciate you! You share your smarts with us… and your tasty, tasty treats.