Cake Flour Vs. All-Purpose Flour: See The Difference Here!
Decorating By czyadgrl Updated 6 Aug 2007 , 5:40pm by mxdiva
Hi All!
What is the advantage to using cake flour? The topic comes up frequently here. I usually chime in, on the "for cake flour" side. It's hard to describe the difference in words, until you see it. A while back I had run out of cake flour when I needed to make 2 batches of the same recipe. I continued on using all-purpose flour. Boy was I surprised when I leveled them! (But stupidly did not take pictures!) Ever since then, I've tried to use cake flour exclusively.
The other day, I ran out of cake flour again. This time, I got the camera out!
Check it out. Hopefully I'm not the only one who sees the difference in the size of the "crumbs" that make up the cake. You have to look closely, but I also think that you can tell in the flavor and how the cake "melts in your mouth". To me, it's just so much nicer with cake flour.
Anyway, take a look ... hopefully this helps answer this question if you have not seen it or tried it yourself...
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake-photo_871023.html
So if I were to use cake flour in a recipe that calls for 2 cupsof all purpose flour would I use the same amount of cake flour?
To substitute cake flour for AP flour, for every 1 cup of AP flour, you use 1 cup + 2 tbsp cake flour. I ALWAYS do this with the Killer Chocolate Cake recipe and it's just so velvety and soft.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2182-Killer-Chocolate-Cake.html
Your photo is great. AP flour has more protein, which forms gluten, which can cause those wormholes. Here's more about the science of it, specifically as it relates to cakes - courtesy of the Good Eats Fan Page and my culinary hero Alton Brown:
www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season6/Cake/CakeTranscript.htm
Wow! I didn't know there was a difference! That is a really amazing picture. But...when I do the extender recipe with my one cup of all-purpose flour it doesn't seem to make a difference? I always get nice crumbs like the cake on the right! Is there something to that!?
Cake Mixes use cake flour, so adding AP flour to it wouldn't make a dramatic difference. That said, I always use 1 cup + 2 tbsp cake flour for the 'enhanced cake formula'. I figure if cake flour is what the mix makers make, it's what I'm gonna use. 
http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-1599-Enhanced-Cake-Formula.html
Cake flour is more than double the price of AP flour, at least in my area. But the results are worth it to me.
Cake Mixes use cake flour, so adding AP flour to it wouldn't make a dramatic difference. That said, I always use 1 cup + 2 tbsp cake flour for the 'enhanced cake formula'. I figure if cake flour is what the mix makers make, it's what I'm gonna use.
http://forum.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-1599-Enhanced-Cake-Formula.html
Cake flour is more than double the price of AP flour, at least in my area. But the results are worth it to me.
That's a good point! I am glad I happened upon this thread this morning!
Thanks for the tips!
To substitute cake flour for AP flour, for every 1 cup of AP flour, you use 1 cup + 2 tbsp cake flour. I ALWAYS do this with the Killer Chocolate Cake recipe and it's just so velvety and soft.
http://www.cakecentral.com/cake_recipe-2182-Killer-Chocolate-Cake.html
Your photo is great. AP flour has more protein, which forms gluten, which can cause those wormholes. Here's more about the science of it, specifically as it relates to cakes - courtesy of the Good Eats Fan Page and my culinary hero Alton Brown:
www.goodeatsfanpage.com/Season6/Cake/CakeTranscript.htm
Thanks for this Kelley 
ps- OOOH! I saw that episode of Good Eats and I had it on my DVR but we lost it. I learned alot about cake in that episode. He is quite the cake scientist 
Does anyone know what the end result would be if I used cake flour when making cookies?
Wow! What a difference the cake flour made!!! Thanks for sharing that!
Just this week I was a judge at our County 4AH fair. I judged pound cakes. Out of about 40 pound cakes entered, 3 were made with Cake Flour! There was a dramaticdifference! The cakes made with the cake flour were much lighter. They still had the pound cake texture and taste but IMHO were a much better cake!
There are two major brands that I'm aware of, SoftaSilk, and Swans Down. They are generally next to the other flours, but they are in boxes, not bags. Here are pictures of the boxes:
http://mykitchen.up.seesaa.net/image/softasilk.jpg
http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/217CTJ42GFL._AA160_.jpg
I read on recipezaar a while ago that if you don't have cake flour you can use 1/4 c cornstarch and 1 3/4 c all-purpose flour combined to make your own. Anybody heard of this and tried it?
from Alton Brown's ' I'm Just Here for More Food: food x mixing + heat = baking book...
regarding Cake flour-
'Cake flour is very soft, with as little as 6 percent protein. It's usually milled from the heart of the endosperm, so it has a fine grain. It's also bleached. Bleaching not only lightens the color, it also weakens teh proteins so that gluten production is further reduced. I usually don't mess with cake flour unless i'm working with a formula containing lots of liquid. Bleached flours soak up more water and so produce thicker batter when lots of moisture is involved.'
furthermore, he states that AP flour contains 9-10 percent protein...bread flour 12-15.
i realize this doesn't explain much, but there certainly is relevant info....i'll try and glean more info....
who's the scientist here?
not me!!
Sally
I have a question...Since a cake made with cake flour is much silkier and softer, how is it for sculpted cakes or stacked cakes that need to be denser??
I think it would work just fine, though I can't speak from much experience. But with finer crumbs, I think it's easier to shape, from the little bit that I have done.
Stacked cakes are just fine, as long as you're using the proper supports anyway.
The cake I built using the layers in the picture were stacked with alternating fillings to a single tier 6" tall and I had no problems whatsoever, only 3 layers were from the all-purpose flour cake.
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