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.
Elaine Smith
I have always made my own cake flour... Instead of taking out the 2 tablespoons for flour i just put 2 tablespoons for cornstarch in my 1cup measure and then fill up with flour and level it off and always sift it together...
Abeer Rizvi
Oh that's a great idea! I will give that a shot next time
Shea
Hi,
This is a great substitute, but not the same thing. Cake flour is actually ground finer by 20 to 30 times which allows the cake to rise higher. Your experiment showed the same results because chocolate cakes mask flour differences a lot more than vanilla cakes. Try the experiment again with say a traditional 1-2-3-4 cake and you'll see the difference. Hope that helps!
Abeer Rizvi
Thanks for sharing that info, Shea. It's good to know! I will try out this substitute in a vanilla cake too and keep everyone updated
Cheryl
I use half cake flour and all purpose flour in my cookies makes them even lighter.....
Abeer Rizvi
I have also started playing around with substituting some all purpose flour for cake flour in a few of my recipes and the difference is incredible! I will try your suggestion with my favorite cookie recipe next time
Bec
We only have plain and self raising flour here, oh, and bread flour. When I sa American recipes calling for cake flour I always just used self raising.
Will try this. Though we do add cornflour, either corn or the wheaten, to some recipes
Abeer Rizvi
That's good to know! It's always nice to see how ingredients and recipes vary in different parts of the world.
Julie
Is it possible to use your stand mixer to whip the flour and starch together instead of sifting 5 times? I have used this method for sifting in the past and it has worked well.
Thanks!
Abeer Rizvi
I have never tried that but that's a great idea and it would save so much time too! Thanks for sharing
Jealith
Good to know, thanks!
Abeer Rizvi
Hope it helps
Barbara
You can make it kosher by adding potato starch to replace the cornstarch
Abeer Rizvi
oh that's awesome! I didn't know that. Thanks for sharing!
Jean
AND that is a gorgeous cake (under How to Frost a Cake Smoothly)! I took cake decorating classes years ago, but I rarely decorate any more--just on reallyreallyreally special occasions.
rashmi anand
Nice tip...want to know if corn starch and corn flour is the same or is there any difference
Abeer Rizvi
I am not 100% sure but I have heard that they are the same thing. In the States, we call it corn starch and in England/Australia, it's called corn flour.
Ella
That's good to know.. didn't know that cake flour is a mix of all purpose with cornstarch
Abeer Rizvi
I was a little doubtful too until I did my experiment with homemade and store bought cake flour and the cakes turned out exactly the same! No difference whatsoever. However, i did some research online and some bakers still say this homemade cake flour is not authentic... not sure why, considering it gives the same results...lol