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Cake flour 'substitute' ???

18 years ago

I've been working my way through a few recipes of molten chocolate lava cake to find the best one for a friend's birthday in February (oh the sacrifice! ha ha) and the next recipe I'm making calls for one-fourth cup of cake flour.

Since I don't have any cake flour, is there anything I can *add or do* to regular all-purpose flour, or should I just buy the smallest bag possible of cake flour?

Thanks for any input!

Smiles,

Sooz

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Comments (8)

hendricus
18 years ago
If it's a real good friend buy the cake flour, otherwise, use all purpose flour and cut the mixing time by 15%.
Marigene
18 years ago
Here is a site that may be of help.

Here is a link that might be useful: Cake flour
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cloudy_christine
18 years ago
I'd probably just use the AP in this case. But the rule for substituting is to use 7/8 of a cup of AP instead of a cup of cake flour. That's 1 cup minus 2 tablespoons. If you want to go for that, take out 1 1/2 teaspoons of the AP flour from your quarter-cup.

I await the opinion of Sol on all matters of molten lava.
sooz
Original Author
18 years ago
Thanks!!!
Smiles,
Sooz
Daisyduckworth
18 years ago
We don't get cake flour here in Australia (or if we do, I've never seen it). If there's any raising agent (like bicarb.soda or baking powder etc), I simply ignore them and use just self-raising flour. If no raising agent, I use plain (all-purpose) flour. I just give it an extra sift.

Or, from my hints book:

If a recipe calls for cake flour, make your own substitute by removing 3 tablespoons per cup of flour and replacing it with either cornflour (cornstarch) or potato flour.
khandi
18 years ago
From Baking911.com

1 cup cake flour equals 1 cup all-purpose flour (preferably bleached) minus 2 tablespoons, and then add in 2 tablespoons cornstarch. Combine. NOTE: It doesn't always work in all recipes.

CAKE FLOUR: This enriched and bleached flour is used in producing fine high-ratio, chiffon and angel food cakes, as well as assorted cookies. (Cakes with a high amount of sugar and liquid in proportion to flour.)

Milled from soft white flour, cake flour has a lower gluten content than whole wheat pastry flour. It is used where a delicate and tender texture is desired. Almost all cake flour is bleached. to lighten its pale beige color. In delicate cakes, it imparts some acidity to a batter yielding a cake with a crumb that's whiter, finer and sweeter in flavor. Bleached cake flour also toughens the protein molecules, enabling the flour to carry more than its weight in sugar.
grainlady_ks
18 years ago
For the small amount of cake flour called for in this recipe, it probably won't make much difference and I wouldn't worry about it or alter the amount (more about that below).

If you keep one of the Southern All-Purpose flours around for making biscuits and quick breads (White Lily, Martha White, Gladiola or Red Band which have 7.5-9.5% protein) it would make an excellent substitute (cup for cup) because it has close to the same amount of protein as cake flour (7.5-8.5%).

People who make lots of quick breads and cake would get better results if they DID use a Southern All-Purpose flour instead of National Brands and Northern Brands of all-purpose flour which have more gluten/protein in them.

Southern All-Purpose flours have less gluten than Northern All-purpose (Robin Hood, Hecker's and King Arthur 11-13%) and National Brands of All-purpose flour (Gold Medal & Pillsbury 10-12%).

It's all about the gluten development... The more gluten there is to develop in the flour, the tougher the cake will be. But once again, there's not enough cake flour in the recipe to worry about.

Hendricus gave the #1 advise when substituting all-purpose flour for cake flour - less mixing. The more you mix, the more the gluten develops into long strands. The more gluten you develop during mixing the harder it is for the leavening gases to escape. They literally have to "drill" their way through the long gluten strands. The leavening gases leave narrow holes that run from the bottom to the top of the cake (or quick bread). Tunnels are the hallmark of overmixing and over-developing the gluten.

There's not enough cake flour involved in the recipe to alter the amount of the flour. The reason for reducing the amount of all-purpose flour when you use it instead of cake flour is because gluten absorbs a lot of hydration and the cake can be drier because of the added gluten found in all-purpose flour. A reduction of the amount of all-purpose when substituting it for cake flour will reduce the total amount of gluten -- a little.

There's a third way to reduce gluten - add more fat. Fat coats the gluten so that it doesn't have as much contact with the hydration, so it only develops into short strands. This is a common method used when people want a more tender pastry crust and are using one of the higher-gluten (higher protein content) Northern all-purpose flours.

After the flour lesson, I wouldn't worry about using all-purpose instead of cake flour.

-Grainlady
sooz
Original Author
18 years ago
You folks *R*O*C*K*
Thanks!!!!!
Smiles,
Sooz

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