Cake Flour Substitute Recipe
How to make a homemade substitute for cake flour to use in recipes that call for cake flour.
Servings: 1 cup
Ingredients
Volume Method Using Cups
- 1 cup All-purpose Flour, (Plain Flour)
- 2 tablespoon Cornstarch, (Cornflour)
Weight Method Using A Kitchen Scale
- 98 g All-purpose Flour, (Plain Flour)
- 15 g Cornstarch, (Cornflour)
Instructions
- The most popular method of making cake flour substitute is by volume. However, if you are baking by weight (as I always do), it will be much more accurate to do this with a kitchen scale. It's not possible to do this with a regular conversion as 1 cup of cake flour weighs less than 1 cup of all-purpose flour. So I have both options below.
Volume Method (most popular)
- For every 1 cup of cake flour called for in the recipe, measure out 1 cup of all-purpose flour.
- Replace with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch.
- Whisk together thoroughly and sift 2-3 times to lighten it.
Weight Method (my preference)
- For every 113g of cake flour called for in the recipe, weigh out 98g all-purpose flour.
- Add 15g cornstarch.
- Whisk together thoroughly and sift 2-3 times to lighten it.
Notes
This substitute works by lowering the overall protein content in the flour, which helps to slow gluten development. It works well for most recipes that call for cake flour, but it's still not the same as commercial cake flour, which is milled more finely.
See the post above for details on when to use cake flour, when AP flour is better, and when you shouldn't use this substitute.