and I like sweet. The recipe calls for 3 c. cake flour and 2 1/3 c. sugar. Now I did sift the flour before I measured it and there was a lot left over. Maybe that was it.

It is a very nice recipe except for that. What do you think, is it normally that sweet or did I do/not do something?

Would there be a problem if I used 1/3rd less sugar, and didn't sift the flour?

I personally don't sift my flour. I guess I could but I don't. I have recipes that call for 3 cups of flour and 2.5 cups of sugar and they are not too sweet. What else did you use? Was it frosted? Was the cake too sweet or the combo if frosted?

I understand the rule of thumb is to measure the flour unsifted. You can sift it after it is measured. Sifted flour measures out to be less than unsifted.

I read in The Cake Bible that we should sift before measuring ingredients and thought I'd try that. The cake took longer to bake than they said, so maybe that's because there wasn't enough flour.

I didn't do anything else.

Maybe I should try the recipe again, not sifting. Do you think it would matter if I used a little less sugar or would that mess up the balance of ingredients?

That does seem like a lot of sugar but I would retry the recipe as is since it turned out well for you. That way you will know it's the recipe and not your method.

When I measure flour I fluff it up first so it's not compacted, and then measure. I've only seen cake flour in a box so I would pour it in a bowl and then measure. No need to fluff it since pouring it into another container would do the trick. Then sift if you wanted to do that.

I usually stir my flour to "fluff" it up a bit before measuring. But when I want to be really accurate, I weigh. One cup of AP flour-4.25 ounces.

thanks for the tips. I'm going to make the recipe again tonight as is and not sift. Will let you know how that works. I'm crossing my fingers since this wedding cake is due Sat.

I love this recipe and have never had any complaints about it being too sweet - however I always do my flour by weight. Try it by weighing it! When I used to measure the flour, it was so short on flour it actually didn't give me enough batter. Although, I must say, you prob. don't have this problem or else your cake would be shrinking (like mine did).