Flour for cakes

[JoAnn L.]

Can our bakers tell us what type or brand of flour they use in their cakes? Does it matter if I just bought a store brand or should I use a brand name? Most of the recipes just say, all purpose flour. Thanks

 

[Swann]

In some recipes they call for all purpose flour for cakes but fine cakes of fine trxture calls for cake flour. Cake flour is finely ground and low in protein made from soft spring wheats (bread flour is very high in protein and of the hard winter wheat variety).
You can buy Soft as Silk or (sorry senior moment) in a box. The boxes are in the flour dept at you grocery.

 

[VeraBlue]

Usually, I use all purpose, unbleached flour. If a recipe calls for cake floue I will use Down's.

 

[lulu]

In Uk the price range of flour is staggering. After spending a lot on flour for a long time I bought one of the supermarket on 13 p a bag plain flour (US All purpose?). I now use this for almost everything. I even made pasta with it this summer and it was great. The only thing I don't find it so good for is bread, the loaves are ok and thats it, but really I use that now. I rarely buy self raising flour, just add baking powder to my plain flour, I never have a problem doing it that way.

I would rather economise with this than with stuff like vanilla essence or sugar....I use golden unbleached sugar unless a white sugar is absolutely necessary. Although in Italy they don't hae golden sugar widely available so I am going to get used to white sugar again! And wierdly I am using really good Italian "00" flour....lol, a complete about turn!

 

[bethzaring]

I'm kinda picky about the flour I use. For baking non yeasted products, I use Arrowhead Mills organic whole wheat pastry flour and for yeasted products, I use King Arthur Whole Wheat bread flour.

 

[daisy]

I have always used self-raising flour for cakes etc, and I buy the cheapest brand available. I have never noticed the slightest difference between brands (in Australia).

I also buy cheap plain flour, which I use for biscuits (cookies), thickening, coating etc. No differences there, either.

If I buy wholemeal flour (SR or plain) I make sure to use it quickly. It doesn't keep for more than 3 months or so.

Cake flour isn't available in Australia, so I use self-raising flour instead, taking out a tablespoon or two and substituting cornflour (cornstarch). When I can be bothered.

 

[Ishbel]

I buy plain and self raising white flours, wholemeal flour and strong flour for breads and Italian flour for pasta making.

I tend to buy my supermarket's own brand of all of the above.

 

[jennyema]

I always use King Arthur flour, as it's very high quality and available in the supermarket -- at least their AP variety is.

I like to use cake flour for cakes -- King Arthur sells it over the internet or in their store in Vermont. But if I don't have any I'll use AP flour or Swans Down or Softasilk.

You should not use self rising flour in a recipe that calls for baking powder or other leavening agents in it unless the recipe specifically calls for it. Self rising flour is regular AP flour with salt and baking powder already added to it. It's an excellent convenience product but isn't a substitute for cake flour.

 

[lulu]

In UK we do not have a "cake flour"

 

[ChefJune]

Flours differ widely from country to country, so if the requestor is in US, then it's helpful for the respondents to be talking about US flours. Personally, I would be interested to learn about how you buy flour in US, but in this thread that might be confusing the issue raised in the first post.

Self rising flour isn't a substitute for cake flour. I learned that at age 11 when I bought some and attempted to make a cake with it. Bad decision! Never did that again. Self rising flour is useful for biscuits and that type of product, as it has the leavening and salt already added.

For all purpose flour, I buy King Arthur or Hecker's (a local brand, I think) For ALL my cake baking, I order White Lily AP flour (NOT self-rising) from Tennessee. It's a soft wheat flour from the south, and cakes made with it are just unbelievably tender. I only buy organic whole wheat flour from a local farmer. That's where I also buy corn meal and rye flour.

 

[Ishbel]

SR flour is used in many cake recipes in the UK. As Lulu said, we don't have 'cake flour'.

 

[rdcast]

Am I to believe that Gold Medal All-Purpose isn't the only flour on da planet ???

 

[bethzaring]

Am I to believe that Gold Medal All-Purpose isn't the only flour on da planet ???

I think that would be a no .

It took me almost one full year being on DC to figure out what a/p flour was. I admit my brain does not work like normal folks. To me, a/p means as purchased, and I knew that was not correct. My brain only comprehends hard or soft flour.

 

[rdcast]

it's normal to be abnormal, so yea, there's more to learn than I want to know, ha