Learning how to make cake flour at home really saves the day when a recipe calls for cake flour, and you only have all-purpose on hand. No need to run to the store! This cake flour substitute is easy to make and gives baked goods a tender, delicate texture.
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I love making my cake flour substitute when a recipe calls for just a few cups, like in my beautiful Charlotte Cake Recipe, Poppyseed Cake, or my airy Greek Yogurt Cupcakes. It’s a baking trick that has saved me so much time and money since I don’t want to buy a whole bag of cake flour to make a recipe.
Cake Flour Substitute Video
Watch the video tutorial to see how easy it is to make cake flour from all-purpose and cornstarch. It’s such an easy trick to making light and fluffy baked goods and pastries.
Why You’ll Love This Easy Cake Flour Substitute
This trick requires just two ingredients and takes just 2 minutes to make! Here’s why when you learn how to make cake flour from all-purpose at home, you’ll never look back:
- Better Ingredients – You know exactly what’s in it. You can choose to use organic unbleached flour, which is tough to come by in the limited cake flour selection in the baking aisle.
- Save Money – It’s way less expensive to make it yourself and your results will be equally amazing.
- Convenient – No need to keep this extra ingredient in your pantry when you can make it without much fuss.
Ingredients
You only need two pantry staples to make cake flour–once you see how much extra you are paying at the store, you’ll never bother with the boxed stuff again.
- All-purpose flour – Be sure to measure the flour correctly
- Cornstarch – Make sure you are getting cornstarch and not corn flour or cornmeal. Look for cornstarch that has just one ingredient on the label: cornstarch.
Pro Tip:
Note that this recipe makes 1 cup of cake flour. If your recipe calls for 2 cups, be sure to double proportionally to 2 cups (removing 4 Tablespoons) and the cornstarch to 4 Tablespoons.
How to Make Cake Flour
Take just two minutes to prepare this substitute, and you’ll love the airy texture of the finished product.
- Measure all-purpose flour into a measuring cup by scooping it from the flour bin and scraping the top off evenly with the back of a knife. Then use a tablespoon to remove 2 Tablespoons of the flour from the cup.
- Add 2 Tbsp cornstarch to your cup of all-purpose flour. I add it directly into the measuring cup.
- Sift the two ingredients together over a sheet of parchment or into a mixing bowl several times, making sure the two ingredients are well combined. I used the fine mesh sieve (actually, I use it for everything!).
How to Store Cake Flour
Once the homemade cake flour is made, store it in your pantry in an airtight container in a cool, dry and dark place. Store away from sunlight and moisture. Check the expiration on your flour and cornstarch, and that is typically the expiration of your cake flour substitute, about 6 to 8 months. The flour is ready to use when you need it!
What is the difference between Cake Flour and All-Purpose Flour?
Cake flour has a lower protein and gluten content and a finer consistency than all-purpose flour, which gives desserts a softer, fluffier texture. You can use this homemade substitute in any recipe that calls for cake flour, like our Storybook Cake Roll and Honey Cupcakes.
Cake flour substitute can come in handy when you need to make a recipe but don’t have it on hand. I love that you can make it from better ingredients for cheaper and in the quantity you need. Try this kitchen hack today!
More Kitchen Tricks and Tips
If you appreciate a good kitchen trick, like how to make homemade cake flour substitute, check out some of my other How-to cooking tips below.
- How to Make Sourdough Starter at Home
- How to Cut an Onion
- Homemade Turkey Stock
- Homemade Pumpkin Puree
- Crispy Taco Salad Shells
- Homemade Taco Seasoning
- How to Cook Rice
- Homemade Ranch Dressing
How to Make Cake Flour
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.
- Use a fine mesh sieve or flour sifter to sift the two together about 4-5 times to make sure they are really well combined.
Notes
Nutrition Per Serving
Filed Under
Hi Natasha, do you think it’s ok to use potato starch instead of corn starch?
Hi Lena, I honestly haven’t tested that. It may work but I would suggest googling that to see if anyone else has tried.
Adding cornstarch does not make cake flour. Cake flour is distinguished from all purpose by its soft low protein wheat variety and bleaching.
Due to wheat variety and bleaching, cake flour has a protein content of around 7% – 8% protein. By contrast, all purpose flour is between 10% – 11.7% protein.
Aside from the variety of wheat, the treatment makes a significant difference in performance. Bleaching changes the molecular structure of protein and starch. That in turns changes absorption rates and starch gelatinization rate during baking. It’s these changes that produce the desirable qualities of cake, including high rise, fine crumb, and short bite.
Cornstarch produces the exact opposite. It does nothing to change the starch gelatinization rate of flour during baking. It’s highly hygroscopic, so it absorbs massive amount of moisture. Worse, when wet, it becomes very thick and gummy. Cake batter contains way too much moisture for cornstarch to become anything but gooey.
I’ve studied in the US and abroad. Never has a baking instructor advocated use of cornstarch in cake batter. But some have explicitly stated never to do this for the reasons I stated above.
Hi Cate, thanks for sharing the science behind cake flour. This substitution does work well in baking recipes that call for cake flour and it is our go-to when we don’t have cake-flour on hand.
Cake flour is chlorinated pastry flour. Pastry flour is flour made from soft wheat so it has lower protein, which produces softer, more tender baked goods than all purpose flour which is made with hard wheat & is best for bread, etc. Chlorinating the flour alters the starch molecules so they can absorb more water and gives it strength to hold heavy ingredients like sugar so cakes rise properly & can hold their volume without falling flat. So substituting some corn starch would help absorb water. But if you’re making a high ratio cake that has more sugar than flour it would be worth it to find real cake flour. But I’m looking forward to trying this substitution for these cupcakes!
Thank you for sharing your insight Maggie! Please let me know what you think of the recipe!
It was a hit! Very tasty & soft & moist!
I’m happy to hear that Maggie! Thanks for sharing 😀
I’ve never bothered with paying attention to cake flour vs all purpose flour but decided to try this recipe to make baked doughnuts. Total success achieved! Easy substitution with minimal work in the sifting resulted in a fabulous finished product. Thanks for the tips!🍩👍
My pleasure! I’m happy you found it helpful! 🙂
Hi! I am going to use Cup4Cup gluten free flour for this recipe. Do you know if the “make your own cake flour” approach will work for this?
Thank you
Hi Jaimi, I’ve never experimented with making gluten free cake flour. I imagine it would work, but I just haven’t tested it to say for sure.
Hi! Is this flour, a low protein flour? I have some recipes, that need low protein flour,I can’t find in my local market. Thank you for your time!
HI Amalia, cake flour has less protein/gluten than all-purpose flour just because you are taking some out and adding corn starch as a replacement. I found this article form the kitchn that may help you with selecting low protein flowers.
Hello, Thank you for the recipe!
For making the cake flour:
Instead of subtracting two tablespoons flour from the full cup, why not simply add two tablespoons of cornstarch to the cup, before the adding the flour, and then add enough flour to make one cup?
I love that approach! Thank you for sharing!!
Thanks, I was going to ask this same question. Makes more sense to me :~)
Hi
Thank you for the tip!
Regards from Mexico!
You are welcome Tere! 🙂
Hi Natasha,
How many grams is your cup of flour equivalent to?
Thanks for your help
Aniqah, this chart may help in the future when looking at US measurements. One cup of flour is 120 grams.
I tried some of the cakes from your blog, they were delicious!! Especially Boccone Dolce Cake. You decorate cakes so gorgeous. Do you make up these recipes yourself?
Thank you so much Lana. They come from a variety of sources – some I make up myself, some are inspired by cookbooks, magazines, pinterest, many are from family, friends and even readers. The Boccone Dolce cake was originally from a gal I met through my blog (Mila Ivanov). Being immersed in food for a living, I can’t help but draw from everything :).
Hi. If I use only all purpose flour… Is it ok? At now I don’t have corn starch.
It depends on the recipe you are using the flour for. Some recipes you can use all-purpose flour but a cake flour will almost always give you a lighter crumb with a cake. It just depends on the recipe.
Hi Natasha,
Do you know if it’s possible to use Arrowroot powder instead of cornstarch? In many recipes you can use arrowroot as a substitute to cornstarch…wondering if anyone’s tried it in this cake mix?
Hi Jenya, I haven’t seen it done to make cake flour so I’m not sure. Sorry I’m not much help. Maybe someone else has tried?
Hi,
Cornstarch same thing as corn flour ?
No, corn flour is ground cornmeal and cornstarch is different.
Thank you so much for the recipe for cake flower, and explaining the science behind it. I knew if made cakes fluffier, but never know why. Now my baking efforts won’t be hindered when the pantry is low. Happy baking!
Yay! I’m happy to hear that.
The cornstarch you have on the photo is a GMO corn starch. They do sell now non GMO cornstarch in Whole Foods and such
Thank you so much for sharing that! I had no idea. I didn’t even think of that.
Hi, can I use bleached Canadian flour for this recipe?
I haven’t tried this with Canadian flour, but since Canadian flour produces a softer product (since it has a higher gluten content), than all-purpose flour, you might use a little less corn starch when making it. I’d probably try cutting the corn starch to even 1 Tbsp. I’ve actually just used straight Canadian flour for some cake flour recipes such as my vanilla cupcakes and had great results without turning it into cake flour, so it depends on the recipe. Hope that helps 🙂
I always wondered what made cake flour “cake flour.” So easy! By the way, your photographs are gorgeous!
It’s cake! 🙂 Thank you so much Melissa for the sweet compliment 🙂
I’ve got all ingredients at home and can’t wait to try it! I can’t believe how easy to make it is and of course cheaper than store bought!!!
Totally! (wow I sounded a little like a surfer for a second there..) ;). It can also be relaxing to sift flour over and over in a strange, only a food blogger would think so, sort of way. I’ll have you know, that was one of my best comment replies yet! lol. I didn’t get enough sleep last night. This time change business is throwing off my game. 🙂
Your pregnancy looks good on you! 🙂 and amazing how much more they will charge you for this flour at the store, isn’t it?
Awww thanks so much Marina 🙂 I agree; it’s crazy how much a small box of cake flour costs.
Who knew it was this easy?! I would’ve been doing this a long time ago lol. Thanks for posting this!
You’re so welcome. It really is easy peasy and you can pre-make a bag of it for future use 🙂