WHAT IS CAKE FLOUR?

Cake flour is used for baking cakes, cookies, muffins etc. and is dearly loved by bakers because of its low protein content (learn about the importance of protein in cake flours here). 

Cake flour contains roughly 7-9% protein compared to all-purpose flour which contains roughly 10-12% protein. Essentially, less protein means less gluten which produces lighter and fluffier bakes.

The protein in the cake flour is still strong enough to structurally hold the baked good together but the weaker gluten bonds help the baked good to be more fluffy and light in texture.

That’s a win for us bakers!

WHAT DO I NEED TO MAKE CAKE FLOUR?

All-purpose/plain flour + cornflour – that’s it!

(BTW – cornflour and cornstarch are the same thing in case you were wondering).

1. All you need to do is measure out one cup (approximately 125g) of plain flour. Scoop out 2 tablespoons (16g) of flour and replace with 2 tablespoons of cornflour (16g)

Sift these two ingredients into another bowl then transfer into an air tight container or jar.

It really is as easy as that!

If you need more than one cup, simply make a bigger batch by doubling or tripping the recipe. The easiest way to do this is by using the scales and weighing the ingredients. 

See below for full recipe. 

CAN I USE CAKE FLOUR FOR A SUBSTITUE FOR ANY CAKE RECIPE?

Mostly. Substituting all purpose flour for cake flour in cake recipes is usually okay when baking cakes that require a nice tender, light and fluffy crumb (e.g. this classic vanilla cake or these cafe style muffins).

Exceptions to this are chocolate cake recipes. This is because cocoa powder is already a finer ingredient and adding cake flour may make the cake flimsy and not strong enough structurally. It really is just a matter of trial and error though.

Sally from Sally’s Baking Addiction suggests that cakes with lots of fruit/vegetables e.g. carrot cupcakes or banana cake do not do so well with cake flour either. This is becasue they are quite dense and need extra gluten to hold them together. But it depends on the recipe!

For best results try to use cake flour only for recipes that either call for cake flour or ones that have a lot of flour or are extra airy in texture (e.g. angel food cake). 

WHERE CAN I BUY CAKE FLOUR FROM IN NEW ZEALAND?

Unfortunately, you can’t! Cake flour is actually banned in New Zealand because the chemicals used to bleach the flour are considered unsafe. 

Thankfully, you can easily make your own instead with this easy recipe.