Hi there
I am from new Zealand and find the American baking terms hard to decipher. In NZ we have regular flour and self raising flour to which we do not add any rising agents (such as baking powder or baking soda - not sure if these are called the same thing in the USA). I found a great recipe for "Best pound cake Ever" on CC and recipe calls for Cake flour. what I need to know is does cake flour have any rising agents in it (That is to say do I use my regular flour or the self raising?). With help of CC members I have been able to work out the weight of 1 stick of butter which was also a foreign concept to me (125 grams apparently).
Thanks in advance for your help

Cake flour does not have any additional ingredients in it. What you are describing is also called self-raising flour here. Cake flour is similar to all-purpose flour but has less gluten.

Here's a handy Australian, British & U.S. Cooking terms chart:

http://www.cooksrecipes.com/tips/cooking-terms.html

Handy Substitutions chart:

http://www.joyofbaking.com/IngredientSubstitution.html

Here's an overview on different types of flour:
(Also has British/American translation for flours.)

http://www.ochef.com/883.htm

Test to Check which Flour is Which:

http://www.ochef.com/783.htm

HTH

JanH, I just wanted to say you are Amazing!!!!!!

Thank You for the websites they helped me!!!
stacy

You're very welcome, Stacy.

Cake flour does not have baking powder. It is just a finer milled flour. However, when substituting regular plain flour for cake flour, 1 cup of plain flour less 2T per each cup of cake flour. (See this page on the Swansdown Cake Flour website:
http://www.swansdown.com/Portals/TheArtOfBaking/portal.aspx?tabid=24)


Good luck!

Thanks everyone, much appreciated. I thought the pound cake was meant to be a dense cake, so I did not think it should have any rising agents, all that recipe has is eggs. I am going to use the "best pound cake ever" recipe from CC.

You are correct - a pound cake is a more dense cake. Let us know how the cake turns out!