Can I Use All Purpose Flour Instead of Cake Flour

The answer is yes - you can use all purpose flour instead of cake flour but you have to make some adjustments.

Cake flour has less protein and is a finer grind than all purpose flour. It is also bleached using chlorination so fat adheres to it better and air bubbles are more evenly dispersed. All that adds up to a finer, lighter crumb in your baking.

Cake flour is also lighter in weight than all purpose flour so if you are measuring by weight all purpose flour is about 12% heavier than cake flour.

If you want to substitute all purpose flour for cake flour:

• for each cup of cake flour take 1 cup of all purpose flour and replace 2 tablespoon of the all purpose flour with 2 Tbsps of corn starch.

or

If you want to substitute cake flour for all purpose flour:

• for each cup of all purpose flour called for use 1 cup + 2 Tbsps of cake flour.