Cake Flour Substitute

Using cake flour in cakes produces the softest cakes with a tender crumb. All you need is just two ingredients, flour and cornstarch to make your own cake flour substitute in 2 minutes.

Table of Content

• What is cake flour?
• What does this mean for our baking?
• How do you make homemade cake flour?
• You may also like
• Printable Recipe

I grew up using all-purpose flour in everything because back then we did not get cake flour and it wasn't so popular. Over the years, I redone most of my cakes with cake flour and have never gone back. Since cake flour produces the softest most tender cakes and cupcakes.

And, as a professional cake decorator, it makes a huge difference to my cakes. I am still amazed at how one single ingredient can make such a big difference.

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What is cake flour?

Well, it is flour with a low protein and it is milled to a finer consistency.

• In fact, all-purpose flour contains about 10 to 12% protein while cake flour contains only 7 to 8%. And lower protein means lower gluten formation. We need high-gluten formation when we make bread, which is why our bread flour has 12 to 13% protein. See the difference?

Let's compare the flour most commonly used flours

• Cake flour - Low protein means less formation of gluten. As a result, this produces soft cakes with a tender crumb.
• Pastry flour - Low protein results in less formation of gluten. And this is great for making pastries like muffins, scones, tarts, biscuits.
• All-purpose flour - A medium protein that has more structure and ability to form gluten. This is great for cookies, pies, tarts, etc.
• Bread flour - Has high protein that has the ability to produce more gluten, which is why it is best to use for bread.

What does this mean for our baking?

Well, it is important to know when to use cake flour and when not to use cake flour. For example,

• Cake flour is wonderful in vanilla cakes, funfetti-cakes, upside-down cakes, red-velvet cakes. It makes them wonderfully soft, light, and airy.
• However, chocolate cake has cocoa powder, which means it already has less flour. So, using cake flour in the chocolate cake can make the cake delicate. As a result, the cake can be difficult to handle and falls apart.
• Cake with wet ingredients like banana, pumpkin, carrots, fruit purees isn't ideal for cake flour. In these cakes, we need all-purpose flour to help with structure.

How do you make homemade cake flour?

It's very easy to make cake flour at home. In fact, all you need is just all-purpose flour + cornflour. Cornflour has less gluten so it works as a tenderizing agent for making cake flour.

• Take 1 cup of all-purpose flour and remove 2 tablespoons of flour from it.
• Then, add 2 tbsp of cornstarch/cornflour.
• Next, sift the all-purpose flour + cornstarch. It is very important that the flour is well mixed. So if necessary, sift twice.
  Tip - Sifting aerates the flour and adds lightness to the cake batter.
• Now, measure out 1 cup you need for your cake.
  Tip – You may have a little extra because sifting adds volume to the flour.
• And, you have made your cake flour substitute.

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Printable Recipe