Ok heres the deal, i have always read recipes that call for cake flour but when i go to the baking isle in the supermarket i only see allpurpose, self rising, and wheat flour so i always just thought it was another name for all-purpose. oops.... so now the question is will this actually be better for my cakes? does it really matter? if so how can i fix this problem since i cant seem to find cake flour. it should be by the other flour right?


sigh...just when you think you have your most basic ingredients figured out.

cake flour is different from ap flour. and it is usually found UP above the regular and all the other flours. Cake flour comes in a box.

some recipes call for cake flour, some for ap flour, some people use only cake flour regardless of what the recipe calls for.

cake flour makes your cakes lighter with a different crumb. You can sub ap flour for cake flour (1cup less 2 tablespoons) but if you get into doubling a recipe or something then it gets funny. Next time u go to the grocery store look up.

I just found out about cake flour. Since I am new to this I want to do everything right, which includes getting the ingredients the cake calls for, and once I get it down, I might experiment. It's hard to see if you haven't looked for it before, but the Soft as Silk kind comes in a pinkish box above the normal flour. I definately noticed a difference in cakes. One recipe called for all purpose, one called for cake, and the one that called for cake flour was more "silky" if that makes sense. I don't know if it was the recipe or the flour that made it that way, but I figured there was a reason two recipes from the same author called for different types of flour. Oh yeah, and the stuff is quite pricey too. I think a 2lb box was 3.69 where I'm at.

Cake Flour -

In the US, there are two brands regularly sold in retail stores --

Swan's Down and SoftasSilk

They are in boxes, and are usually found on the top shelves in your market, near the Wondra flour in the round canister.

Theresa

I'm a huge fan of cake flour. Not sure if it's the recipes I've been using, my slowly increased cake baking skill level or the cake flour but the last several cakes I've made turned out WONDERFUL. (I got the recipes from the softasilk website). The cakes I made held up to being put in the fridge and still cake out soft when we ate it. 1

Difference being the gluten or protein content of each one and yes it will make a difference.

In most of our stores here it isn't next to the flour sacks but next to the bisquick and other baking mixes. As for the difference, cake flour is made strictly with soft wheat and all purpose is a blend.
Soft wheat has a small amount of gluten (the stuff that makes dough sticky).
It also depends on the recipes you are using too. If the recipe calls for cake flour or if it calls for ap.
It's not really recommended to switch between the two when a recipe calls for the other. But sometimes experimenting helps a lot to figure out what works and what doesn't.

I would like to add this to the information that chaptlps has already given us --

Here is what I was taught in the retail baking course I currently attend:

"Gluten is composed of the proteins gliadin and glutenin. It is not directly found in flour, but develops when water is added and combines the two protein chains. The higher the protein levels in the type of flour, the more gluten is developed during kneading."

Theresa

Yeah thats what I was trying to say. Just came out differently. Thanks for the correction.

No prob tmigra,
Thanks for the backup hun.

thanks everyone next time im at the store i will look UP haha. I was always looking for a bag not a box, that could be why. thanks again and happy baking

I do not know if you have any farmer's markets down in S-NJ, but here there are a couple of them which have vendors who sell a combination of organic products, vitamin supplements, and bulk spices and baking products. They sell bulk cake flour, usually in 5 lb bags, for less than the price of a box of cake flour in the supermarket.

The one I know of in PA, which would be closest to you, would be the Korner Kupboard, in Quakertown, PA, at the Quakertown Farmer's Market. Ed, the owner, will order a 50 lb bag of any flour he sells for you. I buy my bulk pastry flour from him for the winter holiday season. I bake much better pie crusts and cookies with pastry flour than with ap flour.

Theresa

i do have a farmers market but only in the summer. thanks again

ok so i went to the supermarket and looked up and low and behold ta da....cake flour!!!!! Yeah. ok so i will use this as soon as my hectic week lets me. thanks again all i will keep you posted if you woudl like.