Self-rising flour cf baking powder and plain flour?

[jessejazza]

I've just cooked a two different fruit cakes and vanilla sponge. One fruit cake with 4 oz plain flour and 1.2 tsp baking powder instead of 4oz self raising flour. The other two as per recipe with self raising flour. All three seemed to have failed to rise. The flour was waitrose which has always been reliable in the past.


Firstly, what is the diference between using plain flour+baking powder and self raising. It seems i've got some 'duff' flour. I always thought one could use either in a recipe. It about five years since i did some baking so i'm trying to get back into practice but seem to have mislaid one of my recipe books which had alot of this info in it.

thanks

 

[Andy M.]

Just a guess based on the info you gave. If the flour and baking powder are old, that could explain the problem. Baking powder has an expiration date whether sold in a tin or mixed in with flour.

 

[jessejazza]

6-8 months - would that be old. That is the decision i've come to but i'm surprised. I've had to move in and look after my mother since my father died 2 months ago. That's how old she thinks it is but i wonder still...

 

[Andy M.]

A tin of baking powder will have an expiration date on it. I don;t know if the SR flour does.

The simple solution may be to just buy some new stuff and trying again, one cake at a time.

 

[jessejazza]

I have got some new and i'll be giving it a go this afternoon. I'm sticking to baking powder and plain flour rather than self raising. Thanks

 

[Andy M.]

I hope all goes well. Keep us posted.

 

[auzzi]

As Australia has a tradition of baking with both, I would say this:

1. the baking powder container will have details of their optimum ratio for leavening
2. check the source of the recipe - baking powder in one country differs slightly from others
3. the difference in using plain flour/baking powder and self raising can be significant. Although they are supposedly the same effect, as with most substitutions, there is always a difference .. plain flour with fresh baking powder vs. self-raising flour that has been sitting on the supermarket shelves for months? .. a "tried and true" baking powder vs. "whatever is added to make self-raising" ..
4. a recipe formulated for self-raising is just that, while plain flour/baking powder is another formulation .. they will indicate is they are interchangeable .. if they don't, don't substitute ..

I would say, if it failed to rise, it is the baking powder not the flour ..