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.
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
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.
Debbie
Thank you for the recipe on cake flour i am going to try it today thanks alot .Debbie
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!
Christine
I never knew this!!!!! I've always used cake flour for my cakes because to me it just makes such a difference in the lightness of the cake, does not make it dense, I do agree that it does cost much more than all purpose flour. I want to try this but very skeptical because the ingredients to bake a cake are not cheap, but the only way to know is to try it.....thanks
Abeer Rizvi
A lot of my cake recipes luckily don't require cake flour. So, I don't have it in my pantry often. But, in my experiment...the cake that I made with homemade cake flour and the cake that I made with store bought cake flour did not taste or feel any different. I would love to know how your cakes turn out...
Sandy
It didn't pack like normal flour (I'm sure due to the corn starch) would it be OK to tap it so it will packed down. I noticed after sifting it five times it increased in value. I making this with gluten-free flour so I will see if it works
Abeer Rizvi
That's just air incorporated into the flour. You can just tap it down. It shouldn't be a problem.
SkyPriestess
I just dry-whisk it together in a bowl till it's light and fluffy. I also use non-GMO arrowroot starch instead of cornstarch. Potato starch is also tenderizing, probably more so than the arrowroot.
Abeer Rizvi
Oh that's good to know! I know some people have asked for cornstarch replacements. This would be helpful. Thanks!
Sherry Hill
I'm so glad you tried the arrowroot because my friend can't have corn and I can't have gluten and I want to try it with all purpose gluten free flour.
Abeer Rizvi
Hope this works out for you!
Carol
How about sifting it together in your food processor?Cae
Rol
Abeer Rizvi
I haven't tried that Carol but I did try sifting everything together in my KitchenAid mixer and that worked great!
Camille
My granddaughter and I love to bake. She loves cakes. And decorating. Swill be using this cake flour many times. She will carry it through her life. Thank you.
Abeer Rizvi
Thanks Camille. It's so sweet that you and your granddaughter bake together...my fondest memories are baking with my Mom and Grandma
T Claessens
I am gonna give it a try, but did you that if you sift the store bought that many times the cake will be more fluffy too.
however this is cheaper and I will know what is in it.
Abeer Rizvi
Yes, sifting makes the cakes fluffier and gives them a more tender texture. That's why many professional high-end bakeries use cake flour.