cake flour vs. regular flour

[~ Wonderful Life ~]

Is it always better to use cake flour when making a cake even if the recipe doesn't call for it?

Is it a 1:1 conversion from reg to cake flour?

Thanks!

[just_lily]

Different types of flour have different amounts of gluten in them. You know, the chewy, stretchy, yummy stuff. Bread flour has the most amount of gluten, and cake and pastry flour has the least. All purpose is somewhere in the middle.

I only keep bread and AP flour on hand. I use bread for bread (of course) and AP for everything else. I'm sure it would be better to use pastry flour, but AP works just fine. I don't alter the measurement in any way.

[ollyoxenfree]

To substitute, use 1 cup LESS 2 Tablespoons of all purpose flour for 1 cup of cake and pastry flour.

If the recipe uses yeast, don't use cake flour. It doesn't have enough gluten.

[pinky]

I'd use the kind of flour the recipe calls for. Particularly delicate cakes do better with cake flour, but many work just fine with regular all-purpose flour.

I was excited to discover recently that King Arthur makes a chemical-free, unbleached cake flour. yay!

[mommy212]

just as a heads up, you can slso make your own cake flour by using 1/8 cup cornstarch to 7/8 c allpurpose flour. It works the same as cake flour, I always use it because I hate having 5 bags of flour in the pantry...

[ollyoxenfree]

Originally Posted by mommy212

because I hate having 5 bags of flour in the pantry...

LOL - right now I have bags of
-all-purpose
-self-rising all-purpose
-whole wheat
-cake and pastry
-self-rising cake and pastry
-bread flour
-buckwheat
-masa harina (corn flour for tortillas)
-corn meal
-semolina

and it's driving me crazy because they are in one tiny cupboard.

I'm not even sure why I have self-rising versions, because I usually make my own self-rising flour. I think I bought them at Christmas when I was doing lots of baking and the shop was out of regular.