I love to bake. My absolute passion is scratch baking. But.....I'm having a problem. I made a cake over the weekend for our family. This was the first time I've used cake flour. The recipe was also a new recipe for me. The cake was very dry. It was a downer for me....LOL!

I have had cakes baked by other bakers that use cake flour and they also seem dry to me.
When you use cake flour are you supose to use the flavored syrup to make the cake more moist?

What would happen if you replaced the cake flour with regular all purpose flour? In my older recipes from my grandmother she would never use cake flour. She used AP flour and her cakes were amazingly moist. This is what I'm after so if someone would please clue me in I would appreciate it. If you did replace the cake flour with AP would the measurements change.....?

TIA,
Chrissy

I use cake flour for my white cake recipe, and it comes out incredibly moist. The cake flour isn't what makes the cake dry.

Cake flower is finer and creates a different texture than AP flour.

I'm betting it was your recipe that is the problem. I highly recommend A Better White Scratch cake from the recipe section here. It comes out amazing and you can tweak it for different flavors.

Angie

my white cake comes out very moist and it uses cake flour. i tried regular flour when i was out of the cake flour, and i didn't like it at all. i use the silver white cake recipe found on cc.

Some scratch recipes make a drier cake than others. There was a thread on here about that where someone asked about scratch cakes compared to box cakes in terms of moistness and density.
One thing that might help is the high ratio mixing method. Rose Levy Beranbaum and Nick Malgieri talk about it. To use it, the amount of sugar by weight must be at least equal to the amount of flour. If you're interested, let me know and when I get home I can find the process and write it up for you. I have used that method and the cakes are extremely moist and tender. And I have made scratch cakes that were dry and tough. it's not the cake flour, it's the recipe.

I love cake flour in cakes, the grain and crumb are so much more delicate than when using AP flour.
(Cake flour has less gluten than AP flour.)

However, my sister prefers AP flour so I had to substitute that in a recipe for her this week-end.

The subsitutions recommended:
7/8 cup AP = 1 cup cake flour
3/4 cup AP & 2 Tbsp. corn starch = 1 cup cake flour*

*I like this better than just cutting back on the amount of AP flour.

Here is a moist cake thread:
(For making scratch cakes, and a how to on simple syrups, using and making.)

http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake-decorating-ftopict-95251-.html

HTH

Thanks for the help. Praetorian2000 I've PM'ed you for help....THANKS!

Jan, I will definately read that thread. I see that it also contains info on the simple syrups that are used on the cakes.....here's my question and I don't mean anything insulting by this....I'm just trying to learn. If the cake is already moist and has a nice crumb WHY do you need to put syrup on it???? I really don't understand this. Like I said I'm not trying to start anything.....I'm just trying to learn.

Thanks,

Chrissy

Cake flour and AP flour are milled from different wheats.

I have found that MOST scratch recipes need tweaking in order for them to be as moist as I like. I start by baking per the directions the first time. Then the next time I'll change 1 thing, such as doubling the oil or adding an extra egg. Each time I bake the recipe, I'll change 1 more thing, until I get a cake that is the way I want it. Just remember to note down what you change so you can reproduce it later!