DIY Cake Flour

I always find myself out of cake flour - either because I've been baking too many cakes or not baking them enough and therefore, just don't have it around the house. I'm going to include a quick recipe for it that will save you a ton of time running to the store.

1 cup of cake flour = (1 cup all purpose flour - 2 tablespoons) + 2 tablespoons of cornstarch

It's not a new recipe and a ton of sites have it, but this flour hack has saved me a ton of times and works with a majority of recipes that need cake flour. Some cake flours are bleached and the bleaching actually helps with the volume of the baked goods. Bleaching changes the characteristics of the proteins and starches in the flour, allowing it to be more elastic and better able to hold gas, so while this recipe does the trick for a majority of recipes, it might not lead to the exact same results for some others.

Some tips - just remember to sift well because the cornstarch can get lumpy and not evenely distribute. And in case you were interested, I'll give you some quick tidbits about cake flour, which is not used just for cakes.

Tidbits about Cake Flour

• Has less protein than all-purpose flour (usually 6-8 percent versus 10-11 percent)
• Less protein means less resistance/toughness from gluten, resulting in a lighter product
• Great for cakes and things that need rise