It's according to the type cake you are baking.
It's good for Cookies and Cakes with nuts etc. , Pie crusts,
I use it in my Braided bread.

If it is a Cake with a light texture, I would get an Opinion.

I think you can. Maybe you will have to add a little more baking powder ?
I am sure someone can answer this , for sure.
Lou

How successful (or unsuccessful) the substitution is depends on the recipe. Cake flour is a low-protein chlorinated (bleached) flour. That means it absorbs less moisture and results in a delicate fine crumb.

A whole wheat pastry flour has a higher protein level. So depending upon the recipe the cake might well be be less moist and heavier with a larger crumb.

If it's something like a brownie or say, an apple cake, it's probably less of an issue. For a chiffon recipe, I'd go get the cake flour.

If you have all-purpose you could use that. There are various formulas for substitution. One is for every cup of cake flour use 1 cup of all-purpose minus two tablespoons.

Carol

Tia:
I just bought a Tia Mini Van !

Carol:
I knew I could count on you, for some input on the
ww Pastry flour.
Lou

Hi, and thanks for the advice. I am not a confident baker and this is for a birthday cake, so I decided not to gamble. The recipe was for a butter pound cake (Rose Levy B.) and I was already fiddling with a different pan size and adding lemon flavoring. Wasn't willing to risk a third variation, so I ran out and bought the Swan's Down and an extra box (or two) of superfine sugar, just in case. :-)

I will experiment when it audience isn't as important!

Enjoy your new van, Lou!

Good luck with the pound cake. I think you made the right decision. RLB's recipes are pretty precise and you don't want to risk going to all that work and expense and not having it turn out. (Not to mention it's for a birthday!)

Lou, I just followed-up on what you said. That's one of the nice things about this forum. People get to hear from more than one baker.

Congratulations on the new transport!

Carol

Belated FYI moment...

To get a similar level of protein as cake flour using whole grains, I mill and mix a 3:1 ratio of soft white wheat (which equals the protein level of your whole wheat pastry flour) AND spelt OR oat groats. I prefer spelt over oat groats, but have successfully used both....

You can make your own oat flour in a blender with oatmeal (quick oats or old-fashioned oats) to blend with your whole wheat pastry flour, mixing 3 parts whole wheat pastry flour and 1 part oat flour, to reduce the protein level to cake flour levels.

Your whole wheat pastry flour is probably milled from red wheat varieties and will have that "acidic" taste common to red wheat, which I avoid by using white wheat varieties. Personally, I'd probably avoid using red wheat flour for cake because of the acidic taste.

Using this mixture of soft white wheat flour and spelt or oat flour, I have a whole grain "cake flour" suitable for the most delicate chiffon cake. Whole wheat pastry flour will probably cause the cake to be a little tough and heavy due to the protein level.

Without adding the oat flour and using whole wheat pastry flour, I would have reduced the whole wheat pastry flour by 1 T. per cup and would have kept mixing to a bare minimum to avoid over-developing the extra gluten found in the whole wheat pastry flour.

-Grainlady

Grainlady, I'm glad you posted, even if it was too late for the original poster. I've been missing seeing you lately.

I've used cake flour on occasion, and not liked using it because it's so refined and bleached. I'm glad to find out how to make a whole grain version of it. Thanks.

Sally

Grainlady can you use barley flour for that same purpose? I have some barley flour in the fridge and I have no idea why I got it. It may have been for something like this. Or maybe to make pie crust flour? I dunno, but I haven't used it and just may end up throwing it out.
I like whole grain flours, but you do need to use the right kind for the right application, as others have noted.

sally2 & lpinkmountain -

sally2 - We've been doing a little traveling and it's the beginning of gardening season, so I haven't been spending much time on the computer.

I should have added, if you mill your own flour, be sure to sift out any large chunks of bran from your flour when using it for fine cakes, like chiffon or angel food. And you must have a mill that will mill a very fine flour to use it for "cake" flour. A coarse grind of flour won't get the job done. I agree about avoiding bleached flour, but saying that, I brought home my 1 bag-for-the-year of White Lily flour I always purchase when we go to Tennessee (LOL).

lpinkmountain - I've never tried wholegrain cake flour with barley flour, but I'm going to bet it's sweet taste would be an asset. Barley does have some gluten, although it's very low in gluten.

Barley flour is an odd flour when you mill it yourself. It's really light and airy. You can mill 3/4 c. barley and it will innitially measure 1-1/2 c. of flour, but after several days storage, it compresses to 1 c. of flour. Barley is the exception to the "stir before measuring" rule. You need to tap the container a few times to settle the contents before measuring.

I like to mill pearled barley into flour and use it in baked goods. Pearled barley has the bran removed so the flour is very starchy and soft to the touch.

If you use barley in a yeast bread the crusts tend to harden after the bread is cooled and the crumb of the bread may be more crumbly, but nice and moist.

Barley flour works well in lots of baking. It's one of those under-used flours, like rye. People only think of barley as a flour for a flatbread and there are LOTS of recipes using it for bannocks, pancakes (and other quick breads), pie crust...

-Grainlady

Grainlady,
I mill my own wheat for baking bread but have never made whole wheat pastry flour. I have recipes that call for it and would like to make my own. I have hard red wheat, soft winter wheat, and soft white wheat grain here to mill. I know I need to use soft wheat but do I sift or strain out any of the bran before using? What process do I need to use? I make exceptions for whole grain by using White Lily also. Beautiful results with their product! Thanks,

ncredbird -

I sift freshly-milled flour to remove the large chunks of bran and any coarse bits of flour for baked goods I don't want coarse results. It's not absolutely necessary to sift the flour, but the larger flakes of bran tend to soak-up a lot of hydration (which can alter the hydration or the baking time), and coarse flour = a coarse finished product. The finer the flour, the better the results of pastry/cake. Consider how fine commercial cake flour is.... That's what I'm trying to duplicate for fine baking needs.

Because I judge foods at County Fairs, I'm a stickler for results and have a critical "eye". When it comes to pastry or a Chiffon/Angel Food Cake made with freshly-milled wholegrain flour, I'll even use the finest mesh sifter I have and only use the finest flour sifted for those recipes.

Not all mills mill a fine grind of flour. Not all sifters have a fine screen for sifting the finest flour. There are a wide variety of mesh sizes in the screens used in sifters.

-Grainlady

lpink, I use barley interchangably with oat flour as a partial sub in my baking. Especially Sol's Brown Sugar Chocolate chip cookies.

Her recipe calls for 2 c brown sugar, I now use 1.5 cups only. I use 2 cups white flour, 1/3 c almond meal and 1/3 cup oat or barley flour.(I believe without looking that her recipe calls for 2 and 1/2 or 2 1/4 cups of flour.) My husband seems to like the barley flour cookies more..He always comments when I use it that these "are the right recipe". LOL

The cookies are a tad "softer" in texture, especially after sitting in the cookie jar a few days, but they are giving the boys a bit more "grain" with their sugar.. LOL

So I would say, start partial subbing out the barley for some of the flour in other recipes you are baking.