Hi Ladies,
Since I have started baking cakes I have always used cake flour because I believe that it makes my cakes smoother and fluffier.
I am wondering what is the real difference between the regular and cake flour.
Is it really worth is to pay more for the cake flour?
Also, I've read on a few posts that when substituting regular for cake flour you substitute by weight and not by volume. What exactely does that mean?
So if I am subsituting 1 cup of regular flour for cake flour, what is the exact weight of 1 cup of regular flour? Thus far, I have always been substituting 1 for 1....
HELP!!!
Thanks!
Melanie in Qc.
Hi Melanie!
The difference between the two is the amount of gluten in the flour - all-purpose flour has more gluten, which can yield tougher results, while cake flour has less gluten (which would explain why your cakes are fluffier!) Cake flour is chlorinated to break down the gluten. You can also use pastry flour (I buy it off Amazon), which has a very slightly higher protein count than cake flour - also fluffy, but isn't chlorinated.
As for substituting - what it means is that you can weigh out the flour in oz. or grams and it will be the equivalent, but you can't substitute a cup for a cup.
If you are looking for weights, I tend to use this site all the time... http://www.sweetnapa.com/volume-to-weight-ingredient-conversion It is very helpful. If you aren't sure about the numbers they provide, you can always look at the side of your bag and calculate the weight based off a serving size.
Hope this helps! 
Kat
Most restaurant supply stores should have cake flour in bulk, IIRC we pay about $15 for a 50# bag of cake flour. This is about the same price as regular flour.
http://www.joepastry.com/category/baking-basics/flour-basics/cake-flour/
http://www.joepastry.com/category/baking-basics/flour-basics/all-purpose-flour/
Left-side list has all of them and their characteristics. Plus, a list of weights.
http://www.joyofbaking.com/flour.html
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