What's the Difference Between All-Purpose Flour and Cake Flour? (2024)

FAQs

What's the Difference Between All-Purpose Flour and Cake Flour? ›

Our unbleached cake flour has a protein content of 10%, while all-purpose flour has a protein content of 11.7%. The lower protein content in cake flour means it has less gluten-forming potential, making it better suited to cakes. (And it's not just for cake!

This is great for cookies and brownies and pie crust, but cakes that call exclusively for all purpose flour will have more of a dense and chewy texture. On the other hand, cake flour only contains 6-8% protein. It has a lighter and more velvety texture, and also is a little bit lighter in color.

Making a cake flour substitute is easy with the following two ingredients: all-purpose flour and either cornstarch or arrowroot powder. Start with one level cup of AP flour, remove two tablespoons of the flour, and add two tablespoons of cornstarch or arrowroot powder back in.

Cake flour doesn't contain any raising agents. So when using it, you will need to use baking powder or baking soda into your cake. When making your own homemade cake flour just note that cornstarch is not a raising agent. It's what is used to soften your flour and cake.

all-purpose flour, so let's clarify that all-purpose flour is wheat flour. It's simply had parts of the wheat grain milled out so it's soft and has a medium percentage of protein, making it ideal for these baking applications: Cakes.

A cake with all-purpose flour substituted for cake flour is more likely to have a slightly coarser crumb, while a cake made with cake flour will have a finer, more even crumb and enhanced tenderness. Our Traditional Angel Food Cake is a good example.

All-Purpose Flour: The Versatile Choice

This balanced protein level makes it versatile enough to produce both soft and chewy cookies as well as slightly crisp ones. If you're looking for a safe bet or are new to cookie baking, all-purpose flour is your go-to option.

Baking powder, in particular, is one of those ingredients you can easily run out of without noticing, but when it comes to baking, it does a very particular job, and can be difficult to replace. Most baked goods need a leavening agent to make them rise, and if you leave it out, your cake or your cookies will fall flat.

You can modify and use all purpose flour as self-rising flour if you add baking powder and salt to give it a leavening effect. A general measurement rule is for every cup of all purpose flour, add a teaspoon of baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon of salt to the mix.

Self-rising flour and all-purpose flour have similar properties with two key differences: ingredients and uses. Ingredient-wise, self-rising flour contains all-purpose flour, salt, and baking powder, while all-purpose flour only contains ground endosperm.

What will cause a tough cake? ›

Toughness in cakes is caused by over-mixing, or the wrong type of flour. Solution: Mix your cake according to the recipe. There is a function to the order in which ingredients are added to create the right texture.

In the US every well stocked grocery store and supermarket carries all-purpose flour, bread flour and cake (pastry) flour. The first two are available bleached and unbleached by all the major national brands.

For low-protein types of flour, like all-purpose or cake flour, you have about a year from the date of purchase to use it. For higher protein varieties, like bread flour, the clock runs out quicker; you'll get about nine months.

The bleached cake flour (6.9% protein) was the tallest of the layers, with a very fine crumb. It was moist without being dense. The unbleached cake flour blend (9.4%) wasn't as tall, but the crumb was even and fine. The cake was a little more dense, moist, and tasty.

For starters, cake flour is low-protein (typically 5–8% protein as compared to 10–13% for AP), and that's because it's milled from low-protein (a.k.a. soft) wheat. This means it does not produce as much gluten as regular AP flour and can yield more light, tender results.

Usually you can tell from the recipe - if the recipe states just "cake flour" and it includes raising agents such as baking powder and/or bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) then flour will be the "plain" (or "all-purpose") type.