Do any of you use  cake flou? If so, what are the cakes you should be using C.F. in. 

I was told that i can make my own cake flour. For every one cup of flour you take 2Tblsps flour out and add 2Tblsps corn flour in.   Any one who does this on a regualr basis pls let me know? TIA

i use it in recipes that specifically call for cake flour -- i tried the formula you mentioned once and the vanilla pound cake had a decidedly corny taste -- would never use it again --

are you in the states? you can buy it at the grocery store in the same kind of boxes that bisquick comes in -- it's milled differently so it has less protein -- king arthur flour used to carry cake flour -- i think they changed theirs or something anyhow it's probably available online from somewhere

Making your own cake flour by subbing out some of the AP flour for another starch be it corn or potato, does "work", but it does not work the same way nor give the same results as if using bleached cake flour. if the results are ok to your liking, so be it. Warren brown writes his recipes this way. Other recipes, as in UBC, are wrote specifically for AP. I would not start switching out and subbing flours unless I made the recipe as intended first to know what I was working with, and what to expect -good and bad- of those subs.

KAF cake flour blend is just that, unbleached mixed with cornstarch. KAF Queen G flour is the lowest protein cake flour I've seen, but a few years back they made only available limited commercially. I've only seen one company who repackages and makes available to the public. 

Mixing in starch to unbleached AP will give you a different result than mixing with bleached AP.  will you notice the difference? Maybe, maybe not?? Will your recipients notice? Some people don't care. Some people are sensitive to the differences.

if you are really feeling randy,, look up Kate flour.

me personally, if a recipe called for cake flour, I would use White Lilly AP before going with a standard AP mixed with starch.

because white lily is all soft wheat flour -- most other ap flours have things added like malted barley flour and enriching -- 

yes there are people screaming for that other kaf cake flour -- softasilk was always good enough for me -- 

i'm not looking up kate flour -- scarey 

:)

definitely agree with everyone, only use cake flour when recipe calls for it. I personally only use recipes with cake flour, I prefer the finer crumb texture. I have never made my own, I have used swan's down and softasilk and love both.  I once used organic arrowhead mills pastry flour and did not like the result in crumb texture.

In Canada I also use Robin Hood Cake and Pastry flour and that is awesome and a great price!

I use Robin Hood Cake and Pastry flour here in Canada. It is the closest thing to the American cake flour. I know that Canadian flour is not exactly the same as American flour but I haven't had any issues with using it in American recipes

You cannot however switch out all-purpose flour when a recipe calls for cake (and pastry) flour or vice versa and expect great results. Your results may not be a complete failure but you will not get the same results. When you can get away with switching out, it will take an adjustment in the amount of flour and some changes in the types and amounts of ingredients.

A good example would be making pie crust using the "Never Fail Piecrust" recipe. The recipe can be made with different amounts of the two flours. However you will get the best results with the cake (and pastry) flour.

I do however, use unbleached flour where bleached flour is called for in a recipe and had success with the recipes so I don't find that to be an issue.

-k8memphis, "Kate Flour"? Very scarey for you indeed.

there's no ownership there -- I never even checked 

-k8memphis, haha sorry kiddo, I guess I misunderstood your post. I thought you were joking that "Kate Flour" was scarey for you because it might be "ground up and milled K8 flour as in you being the flour.

Thanks everyone for your very informative replies. i made a ribbon cake lately and used the "made up" cake flour and everyone commented how nice it was. ( bit too fluffy for my liking). i was just checking if any of the other CCers were using CF or this method in their ribbon/choc cakes. thanks once again.... K8memphis. I am in Australia

suzied, the protein content of flour varies in different countries.  So it makes it difficult to get exact comparisons.

What you refer to as corn flour is called cornstarch in North America with actual corn flour here being a totally different ingredient. In North America, corn flour is a very finely ground cornmeal.

squirrellycakes is right as usual different countries do it different

Oh and another thing, your icing sugar (powdered sugar) is strictly sugar in content.  In North America, a small percentage of cornstarch is added to ours.

Meant to add that the cornstarch is added to the icing sugar to prevent clumping.

yes your corn flour is our corn starch - then do you guys have corn meal which is a grainier corn meal that we make corn bread and muffins out of - also used to dust the bottom of pizza crust ànd yeast rolls sometimes 

Squirrelly   this is what i use :

we have pure icing sugar which we use for royal icing or making fondant.

Icing mixture  (96% cane sugar +4% maize starch/tapioca)- which i add to butter to make butter cream 

corn flour  which i added to my last cake.

yes, you are correct. its added to the icing sugar to prevent clumping. (icing mixture) pink packet. 

K8memphis are you referring to Polenta?  i think cornmeal is called polenta over here. not 100% sure though

yes I bet that's it because we call a cooked dish of cornmeal 'polenta' actually we called it 'mush' cornmeal mush when I was a kid but yeah that's our corn meal

In Canada and the U.S., all powdered sugar (also called icing sugar, confectioner's sugar, 10 X)  contains cornstarch. Some of the sugar used is pure cane and some products are beet sugar. But they all have cornstarch added.

I imagine that your fondant would be somewhat different than ours because of the addition here of cornstarch.   The same thing would apply to royal icing.  Might explain why some Australians and Europeans prefer their fondant over ours.  Haha, that and the fact that you have been making it forever and have perfected it!  It is still relatively new here.

Though royal icing covered fruitcakes were popular in Canada until the late '70's, they are rarely made here today and the art of completely decorating a wedding cake in royal, is becoming a lost art.  Sadly.

In the U.S. fruitcakes for weddings were never quite  as popular for wedding cakes.

Oh and one more thing I remember from the days when our Australian friends first came on the site and we compared measurements, your tablespoon is 20 ml, while Canadian and American tablespoons are 15 ml.

 In Canada our quart is 40 ounces though these days we measure  in litres.  The U.S. quart is 32 ounces.  I learned that as a teen when an American recipe for a huge batch of bran muffins called for a quart of buttermilk and I used a Canadian quart.  Those didn't turn out.

The Americans call for a stick of butter in many recipe.  We don't use that measurement here but it is a half a cup of butter.  Or about 125 ml.

So you really have to know what country your recipe comes from unless weight is used.  But still, it helps to know where,  when it comes to what the ingredients are.

Polenta here in Canada refers to a cornmeal dish made with cornmeal. The word and possibly the dish  are Italian in origin.