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I love making my own cake flour substitute. It has just 2 ingredients and takes 2 minutes to make! You can bake the best vanilla cupcakes even if you don’t stock cake flour in your pantry!
Making your own is great because you know exactly what’s in it. You can choose to use organic unbleached flour which is tough to come by when you’re looking at the limited cake flour selections in the baking aisle.
It’s also way less expensive to make it yourself and your results will be equally amazing. Read on to watch the quick video tutorial and see just how easy it is!
Enjoy this quick video tutorial and see just how easy this is!
Cake Flour Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour, minus 2 Tbsp
2 Tbsp corn starch
Note: If your recipe calls for more cake flour, increase the ingredients proportionally; i.e. 2 cups flour (minus 4 Tbsp flour) with 4 Tbsp corn starch, etc.
How to make cake flour:
1. Measure flour by scooping it into a measuring cup and scraping the top off with the back of a knife to level it. Remove 2 Tbsp flour and return to your flour bin.
2. Add 2 Tbsp corn starch to your flour
3. Sift the two together about 4-5 times to make sure they are really well combined. I used the OXO sifter (actually I use it for everything!)
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The science behind cake flour:
Taking out some of the flour removes some of the gluten and the corn starch works as a tenderizing agent, producing a fluffy and super soft cake with a finer crumb.
How to Make Cake Flour
Ingredients
- 1 cup all-purpose flour, minus 2 Tbsp
- 2 Tbsp cornstarch
Instructions
- Measure flour by scooping it into a measuring cup and scraping the top off with the back of a knife to level it. Remove 2 Tbsp flour and return to your flour bin.
- Add 2 Tbsp cornstarch to your flour
- Sift the two together about 4-5 times to make sure they are really well combined.
Notes
If your recipe calls for more cake flour, increase the ingredients proportionally; i.e. 2 cups flour (minus 4 Tbsp flour) with 4 Tbsp cornstarch, etc. Store cake flour substitute just as you would any other flour, in an airtight container in the pantry. Check to see when the AP flour and cornstarch expire to know when the cake flour expires, usually 6 months. Cake Flour vs All-Purpose Flour Cake flour makes more tender, lighter and more delicate desserts, like Angel Food Cake, pastry, and biscuits. Replace two tablespoons of AP flour with cornstarch lowers the gluten content of the flour, while the cornstarch acts as a tenderizer, and the sifting makes for finer flour.
Nutrition Per Serving
More scrumptious goodies that call for cake flour:
Greek Yogurt Cupcakes with Blackberry Cream: These are prize-winning cupcakes! They are incredibly fluffy and you wont be able to stop after just one.
Chocolate Layer Cake with Creme Chantilly Frosting: it sounds fancy, but it’s really easy and turns out stunning, soft, chocolatey and delicious.
Cherry Surprise Honey Cupcakes: These are light, fluffy, made with honey in leu of sugar and have a sweet cherry surprise in the center.
Perfect Vanilla Cupcakes: Perfection every time; these are my go-to cupcakes. They go well with just about any frosting.
The Storybook Cake Roll will make your taste buds dance. Moist, chocolatey, and just scrumptious!
I hope this tutorial is helpful to ya! Be sure to pin it for future reference ;). Have an awesome weekend my friends!
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
Can you do this with gluten free flours?
Hello Joan! I have not tested this with GF Flour. If you try that as an experiment, we’d love to know how it goes!
I made a cake substituting all purpose flour for the cake flour and only did it for one cup but the recipe callled for 21/2 CUPS
cake flour so my cake came out very dense and only one inch thick. So I realize I only added 2 tbsps corn starch and for 21/2 cups I should have added 5 total so it ruined my cake……
Sorry to hear that, Marjorie. Be careful with measuring the ingredients next time as it is important to measure the ingredients correctly.
Hi can u share eggless recipe of sponge cake
I don’t have that recipe at this time but I will add it to my list. Have you tried our eggless chocolate cake recipe?
Hi Natasha. Love your recipes. When you make the cake flour for this recipe do you still use 1 cup of flour and take out 2 tablespoons or 1 and 1/4 cups of Cdn. AP flour remove 2 tablespoons of flour and add 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. I am just a little confused. Thanks Judy
Hi Judy, I substitute 2 Tbsp of flour with corn starch. If you watch the video tutorial, it will be more clear.
I used this cake flour for my sponge cake yesterday and it really helped 🙂
It used to collapse as it cooled but now, it stays nice and tall. I think the corn starch makes all the difference.
Thank you so much for sharing that with mus, Natalya!
Hi Kathleen, Thank you so much for sharing your vanilla cake. About how long do you bake at 350˚F?
Hello! Is there any ingredient i can use instead of cream cheese? In my country it’s not very popular and many cake recipes require cream cheese.
Hi Sara, which recipe was the cream cheese question intended for?