Weighing vs. Measuring Ingredients?

It is a lot easier actually.  You just dump until the number says what it needs to.  No scooping and leveling and all that and less to clean which is a huge plus.

It is much more accurate than measuring it out by volume too.  You can pack over 1.5 cups of flour (by weight) in a 1 cup measuring cup.  Measuring it out by weight makes sure that you don't get too much or too little by chance.  it takes the guess work out of it.  It takes a bit of time converting recipes, but once you get it down it is easy.  I haven't measured an ingredient in a measuring cup in years... LOL.

Hi!

What are you asking exactly? To me it seems that weighing is a method of measuring something. You weigh something on the scale so you are measuring the weight, no? English is not my native language, I do not mean to offend.

In Holland we use the metric system, we do not have those easy cup scoops unfortunately. However I prefer to weigh my ingredients on a scale unless they are liquids, then I use a measuring cup. The time difference is hardly noticable when you have to poor it back, you have to poor it back.

Cheers!

How to correctly measure baking ingredients:

http://www.foodservicewarehouse.com/education/how-to-correctly-measure-baking-ingredients/c27624.aspx

http://tmagazine.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/weighing-in-the-bakers-dilemma/

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/measuring-ingredients-for-baking.html

Weight vs. Volume video:

http://www.joyofbaking.com/WeightvsVolumeMeasurement.html

HTH

It ensures consistency among your cakes as well, as long as your mixing methods and baking are good.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by KirasCakery 

So I am looking at my recipes and trying to convert them to grams. Huge confusion here!!! I have looked up several conversion charts and all of them are different... So how do I know what a true cup of flour weighs? And sifting doesn't make a difference in the weight of a true cup, right??

You have several options

--use ounces instead of grams.  Useful if you buy stuff in ounces

--measure out all the ingredients for your "best" recipes according to your regular method.  Then weigh them all in whatever system you prefer, write down those weights, and from now on bake by weight

--find online recipes written by weight, and professional bakery manuals in either ounces or grams, and learn to bake those new recipes

But it's clear that you are still reading and not doing this in the kitchen.  Please, put down the websites and books and get your hands dirty with a kitchen scale. A battery operated digital scale can be bought for under $20 across North America.  You need to DO without fear of mistakes before you will truly believe what we are all trying to tell you about the improvement in your baked goods.

Every baking item that you use has a Nutritional panel on it's packaging. The manufacturer indicates exactly how much the item weighs for the cup/spoons used, for example

King Arthur All purpose Unbleached flour: 1/4 cup = 30g

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop-img/labels/1357249817165.pdf

Domino Granulate Sugar: 1 teaspoon = 4g [1/4 c = 48g]

http://www.dominosugar.com/nutrition-facts/nutrition-facts-granulated-sugar.html

Crisco 1 tablespoon = 12g [1 cup = 192g]

http://www.crisco.com/Products/ProductDetail.aspx?groupID=17&prodID=315

Now all you have to work out is Metric to US Imperial ...

Professionals are trained to weigh ingredients for consistency, accuracy of ratios and cost control. I never measure anything in volume, everything gets weighed in my kitchen. And it may add an extra few seconds to your production time, but the consistency of final baked product is worth it. I know my formulas won't fail due to a light or heavy hand.

Both sets of digital scales I have bought had a button for flicking between different countries weights so if you have an Aussie recipe you can set them to grams etc and if you have an American recipe you can swap it to ounces etc.  That way you are not having to convert measurements.
 

i do both weigh and measure--plus i used to use the scales with the weights to balance --those are fun too

you really had to do some cyphering!!!

i stir my flour with a whip --just stick it down in the top of the bag and stir first

and i get close enoughto right

in fact long ago my kid surprised me with this set of red heart shaped measuring cups by saving some box tops and conspiring with the neighbor

it is beyond the sweetest thing to measure brown sugar in those because when i pop it out i have a sweet heart staring back at me from the mixing bowl

probably told that story before but...still cool