Cake flour vs. all-purpose flour: What's the difference, and how do I substitute? (2024)
“I want to make a recipe that calls for cake flour, but all I have is all-purpose flour. Can I substitute all-purpose for cake flour?”
If you’ve ever asked this question — to yourself or a friend — you’re not alone. Sometimes we just don’t have the flour a recipe calls for (and can’t bear another trip to the store), or maybe the store was out of stock. So how much does flour choice affect your baking?
Anne Mientka
The difference between cake flour and all-purpose flour
First, it helps to understand the difference between cake flour and all-purpose flour.
It all comes down to protein content. Every type of flour has a protein percentage, which reflects how much gluten-forming protein it contains. Because protein level correlates with gluten-forming potential, it’s helpful to think of it this way: the higher the protein content, the “stronger” the flour.
When making baked goods like bread, using a strong flour with high protein makes sense. The robust glutinous web that develops when the flour is combined with liquid results in bread with chewy, bouncy texture. But when making a cake, it’s the opposite: We want something with a soft, fine, and tender crumb. In order to get it, we want to discourage gluten development, and one way to do that is to choose a flour with a lower protein content (the other is to avoid overmixing, which further develops gluten, even if you are using 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! Our Test Kitchen uses lower-protein cake flour to achieve a melt-in-your-mouth texture in cookies like these Fiori Thumbprint Meltaway Cookies, while these Lemon Sugar Crunch Buns include cake flour for a delicate crumb.)
Photography by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne
Can I substitute all-purpose flour for cake flour?
Yes, you can. You’ll wind up with a similar cake, just with a slight difference in texture and crumb.
Both flours perform the same in recipes — they’ll mix into identical batters — but the final results will differ to a small degree. 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. The recipe itself calls for either cake flour or all-purpose flour in the ingredient list, but the recipe tips note there will be a difference in the final cake: “Using our unbleached cake flour (instead of all-purpose flour) yields a taller, more tender angel food cake.”
For the best cakes, use cake flour if the recipe calls for it. But if you need to sub in all-purpose flour in a pinch, you’ll still wind up with tasty cake, and less discerning tasters may not notice much of a difference. With that said, Senior Recipe Developer Molly Marzalek-Kelly, who did endless cake testing last year while developing a lineup of snacking cakes, says, “If I want a cake that’s the most tender with a fine, even crumb, you better believe I’m reaching for cake flour.”
Switch recipes and bake a cake that calls for all-purpose flour instead. Some of our favorites include: Classic Birthday Cake, Golden Vanilla Cake, Favorite Fudge Birthday Cake, and Chocolate Cake.
But the good news? If you don’t have cake flour, it’s easy to make a homemade substitute with all-purpose flour.
Photography by Danielle Sykes; food styling by Liz Neily
How to substitute for cake flour
You can make your own cake flour substitute by combining all-purpose flour with a little bit of cornstarch. The cornstarch adds tenderness and lowers the overall protein content of the mixture to mimic that of cake flour.
How to make cake flour: Whisk together 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons (105g) all-purpose flour and 2 tablespoons (14g) cornstarch. Use in place of cake flour in a recipe, substituting by equal weight or volume.
Can I substitute cake flour for all-purpose flour?
While it’s usually fine to substitute all-purpose flour for cake flour, the opposite isn’t true. “For those bakers out there thinking ‘flour is flour’ — no, it’s really not!” says Molly. She explains, “Subbing cake flour 1:1 into a recipe that was developed for all-purpose flour might result in sunken cake or bars, or cookies that are too delicate or simply fall apart.” That’s because the lower protein content in cake flour may not develop enough gluten or structure to support a baked good meant to be made with all-purpose flour.
Photography by Mark Weinberg; Food styling by Liz Neily
Start baking with cake flour
Ready to bake great cake? Pick up a box of cake flour and make some of our favorite cake flour recipes:
Tender White Cake
Cookies and Cream Cupcakes
Almond Tres Leches Cake
Coconut Cake
Ultra-Vanilla Cupcakes with Easy Vanilla Frosting
Cover photo (Coconut Cake) by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.
Cake Flour Differences. The difference between all-purpose flour and cake flour actually comes down to protein content. All-purpose flour has a higher protein content than cake flour: It's about 10 to 12 percent in all-purpose flour versus 7 to 9 percent in cake flour, depending on the manufacturer.
Add an extra 2 tablespoons per cup of cake flour to equal the quantity in 1 cup of AP flour. If you're substituting all-purpose flour for cake flour, you'll want to reverse these ratios: Use 2 tablespoons less AP flour per cup of cake flour, and add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch per cup.
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.
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.
All-purpose flour is the most common flour called for in recipes, for both cooking and baking. But if you don't have any in the pantry, or can't find any in the store, there are other flours you can use in its place. Bread flour and cake flour—on their own or mixed together—can substitute for all-purpose.
If you opt for all cake flour cookies, less gluten is formed when you mix the cookie dough. The resulting cookie consistency post-baking is delicate, softer, fluffier, and, well, more cake-like. The color may end up paler, and the edges might not be as crispy. But the flavor should still deliver.
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.
If you do want to make a product that rises, like a cake, cookie, or bread, you'll need to add a separate leavening ingredient like baking powder, baking soda, or yeast. This ingredient will then activate during the cooking process and introduce gas bubbles to the mixture, which then causes the product to rise.
Baking powder is mixed with the flour. When water is added to this flour to make dough, baking powder undergoes a chemical reaction during which carbon dioxide gas is produced. This carbon dioxide gas gets trapped into the dough and bubbles out which causes the cake to rise making it soft and spongy.
Some of my favorite brands are Swan's Down, King Arthur Flour, and Softasilk. They are all great products and will yield excellent results. But, if you find yourself in a pinch (or in Europe where it is more difficult to find) – don't panic! You CAN use all purpose flour as a substitute with a little doctoring.
The rule of thumb here is the more protein, the lower the shelf life. 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.
Cakes: For light, delicate cakes like yellow cake, angel food cake, and chiffon cake, use bleached flour, especially when the recipe calls for cake flour. For sturdier cakes like carrot cake, pumpkin loaves, quick breads, and muffins that can tolerate a denser texture, use either bleached or unbleached.
You can make a cake flour substitute by mixing a few tablespoons of cornstarch (or a cornstarch substitute, but more on that later) into all-purpose flour, which will help inhibit gluten formation. The result? A cake that's just as tender as it would be if you used store-bought cake flour.
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.
Falling between all-purpose and cake flour, pastry flour is also made from soft wheat, but with a 7–9 percent protein content. It produces both the tender crumb and flaky texture that is desired in most pastries.
For every cup of cake flour called for in a recipe, measure one cup of all-purpose flour, remove 2 tablespoons of the flour, and then add the flour to a mixing bowl.Add in 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and whisk well to combine. Voila!
Cake flour is typically milled finer than AP flour, in the name of tenderness. And, while AP and bread flours typically contain a small amount of malted barley or its enzymes, which help produce food for yeast, cake flour does not.
Because plain flour contains no extra ingredients, including rising agents, your cakes and pastries won't rise if you use this type of flour as it is. You'll need to add a rising agent, such as yeast or baking powder, into the plain flour if you want your baked goods to rise and become appetisingly fluffy.
Introduction: My name is Pres. Lawanda Wiegand, I am a inquisitive, helpful, glamorous, cheerful, open, clever, innocent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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