Learn how to to make homemade cake flour with 2 simple ingredients. This is a quick and easy substitute with just all purpose flour and cornstarch!
You can go to the store and search for special flour (and spend more money), or just use what you likely already have around your house. It's also a great recipe to have in a pinch as a substitute when you didn't realize you ran out of your favorite flour! For more helpful baking tips, check out How to Blind Bake Pie crust and How To Make Brown Sugar.
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What is Cake Flour?
It's a low protein flour that's typically used in baking, especially cakes, in order to give them a wonderfully firm but soft texture. This is typically the flour that is used in fancy bakeries to create high quality desserts.
How to make DIY cake flour substitute recipe from scratch?
- Measure out- 1 cup of all purpose flour.
- Remove- 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour from your cup and dump it back into your flour bag.
- Add in- 2 tablespoons of cornstarch into your cup of all purpose flour.
- Sift- Five separate times!
See what I mean-You only need 2 ingredients to make this!
Cake Flour vs All-Purpose Flour vs. Pastry flour (Is it the same as plain flour?)
The main difference is the protein content. Cake flour has a lower protein content at 7%-8% than compared to a harder all-purpose flour with 10%-12% protein. This lower protein count implies that less gluten is formed as the batter is mixed, which results in a light, airy, tender and fluffy cake textures. It's also excellent to use for cupcakes. Pastry flour is also considered to be a high quality fine textured flour with about 9 percent protein.
I have used this flour in this Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake and this Funfetti Cake (Confetti Cake) and these Yellow Cupcakes as well as these Red Velvet Cupcakes and of course these Chocolate Chip Cupcakes. In all of these recipes, I needed the main component of the dessert to be light because the frosting would be heavy. Using this type of flour helps to create balance between the light and heavy components.
In general, this flour is preferred for cakes, cupcakes and small tea cakes, which typically are fluffier than other desserts. It is typically NOT used to bake breads, cookies or muffins, which are denser.
Can I use all-purpose flour to replace cake flour?
No, these two flours cannot be used interchangeably. All-purpose flour would make your desserts more dense and heavy unlike the other one, which makes it light and tender.
Tips and techniques for homemade cake flour
The key is sifting- You need to sift these 2 ingredients multiple times because it allows the cornstarch and flour to mix together thoroughly.
Make more- You can easily double or triple this recipe and because it has a long shelf life.
Don't forget to remove some flour- You need to remove and replace 2 Tbs of flour with 2 Tbs cornstarch. If you forget to omit the flour, this recipe won't work at all.
Store in tightly sealed container- Because this will ensure humidity and other unwanted things stay out of the flour and keeps it fresh longer.
Where to buy this flour? If you are purchasing this rather than making at home, you can find it in the baking aisle of almost all the grocery stores. You can also order online. The two popular brands that I have used before are Swans Down and King Arthur.
Storage
Room Temperature- Store this in a sealed container away from humidity for up to 4-6 months. Beware of climate and humidity affecting shelf life.
Fridge- Store in a sealed container away from possible liquid spills for up to 1 year.
More Baking Tips
- How to Frost a Cake Smoothly
- How to Color Fondant
- How to Make Homemade Sprinkles
- How to Soften Brown Sugar
- How to Frost a Cake Smoothly
Recipe
Homemade Cake Flour Substitute
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Ingredients
- 1 cup All-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon Cornstarch
Instructions
- Measure out 1 cup of all purpose flour.
- Remove 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour from your cup and dump it back into your flour bag.
- Now, add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch into your cup of all purpose flour.
- Sift once.
- Sift twice.
- Sift thrice.
- Sift again.
- And sift one last time!
Notes
- Don't skip the sifting!
- Store this in a sealed container away from humidity at room temperature.
- Recipe can easily be doubled or tripled.
Nutrition
An automated tool is used to calculate the nutritional information. As such, I cannot guarantee the accuracy of the nutritional information provided for any recipe on this site.
CLovas
Our three daughters are all gluten free, I use gluten free flour as a substitute for all-purpose flour in my recipes, but when I have one that calls for cake flour I tell them they are out of luck! Now I will try All-purpose gluten free flour with cornstarch when a recipe calls for cake flour and we'll see how that works!
Thanks!
Abeer Rizvi
I hope this works out well for your baking. Gluten free baking is tough and I tip my hat off to everyone who does it soooo well!
Debbie
Thank you for the recipe on cake flour i am going to try it today thanks alot .Debbie
Annie Hummings
I only use all purpose self-rising flour and just sift the flour very well and my cakes turn out great. By the way, I don't even use salt in my cake recipes because there is salt in flour and people love my cakes. They tell me that they are very moist. I also use unsalted butter called sweet dream. I have three people looking forward to me making their cakes for Thanksgiving.
Bobbie
Can this be easily converted to a gluten free cake flour? I have a granddaughter with celiac disease and I am trying to learn to cook everything gluten free.
Abeer Rizvi
A few of my readers have tried it and said it worked just fine because cornstarch is gluten free. I have personally never tried it though...
Lesa
How many grams would this be per cup of flour?
Thanks
Peggy Kramer
Is this receipe for 1 cake or what exactly?
Abeer Rizvi
It's a cake flour recipe. Some cake recipes ask for cake flour instead of regular all-purpose flour and this is what you can use rather than buying it.
Cindi Smith
Please send me the whole recipe for the cake
Abeer Rizvi
What cake recipe are you looking for Cindi?
S.M.S.
CAN YOU USE THE UNBLEACHED FLOUR INSTEAD OF ALL PURPOSE FLOUR?
Abeer Rizvi
I don't think that would work the same way.
esnuel daryl
Interested in baking thanks for sharing some of your recipes with me
Cathy
Thank you so much. I ran out of cake flour and had the urge to make a roll cake that calls for cake flour. It turned out great.
Abeer Rizvi
That's great!
Stella Wilson
Great!l i didn’t have any cake flour for my cupcakes for my kids!
Heidi
This just saved me a LOT of extra time and gas to the grocery store! THANK YOU!
Abeer Rizvi
Happy to have been helpful!
Michelle
Would this work with gluten free flour with xanthum gum? Thank you!
Abeer Rizvi
I have never tried that and I am not sure what would happen.
Nicki
Thank you for this
Supriya Kutty
thank you so much for putting up this article. I did not know how to actually make the flour and always used t get it from the market but from now onwards will make it at home as I have learned things well.
Kimberly Miller
Why not add the cornstarch first…..fill the 1 cup level off with knife……then sift. Work smarter not harder. That’s the way I do it,
Ella
I didn't know this was a thing.