How To Make Cake Flour

What Is Cake Flour?

In the grocery store, you’ll likely find an aisle of flour varieties like all-purpose, cake flour, bread flour, pastry flour, and many more. These flours are defined by the amount of protein they contain, which in turn affects the amount of gluten in your baked good. More protein typically means more gluten.

To see what kind of baked goods you can make with cake flour, check out Hummingbird High‘s cake recipe collection!

Cake Flour Versus All Purpose Flour

Cake flour has a lower protein content than all-purpose flour. Cake flour typically contains 5 to 8% protein, whereas all-purpose flour contains 10 to 12% and bread flour contains 12 to 16%.

Other differences? In the past, cake flour was more finely ground, with a silky texture similar to confectioners’ sugar. However, these days, most commercial flours are ground to the same consistency and texture.

How To Make Cake Flour

@hummingbirdhigh this is my apology for developing all the cake recipes in my cookbook with cake flour instead of AP 😳😬 #bakingtutorial #bakingrecipe #bakingtips ♬ Caramel Latte – Prod. By Rose

You can also scale the recipe up and down accordingly. For instance—to make 2 cups of cake flour, measure out 2 cups of all-purpose flour. Then, scoop out 4 Tablespoons (or ¼ cup) of the flour and replace it with the same amount of cornstarch.

Although it’s easy enough to do with measuring cups, I prefer to do it by weight. That way, you can scale the recipe up or down easily. Check out the recipe card below for further instructions with weight measurements!

Best Store Bought Cake Flour

Okay, you read the above and thought “too much work, I’ll just go to the store”. I get it! If you decide to go the store bought route, my favorite cake flour is Swans Down Cake Flour. This is the only company that makes cake flour EXCLUSIVELY.

Recipes With Cake Flour