161g = 1 cup or 1 1/3 cups?

[tahminakress]

A recipe I’m using from a baking cookbook calls for 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour and says that this is equivalent to 5.7 oz or 161 g. I weighed 161g of the all-purpose flour but it only came out to 1 cup. Anyone have any wisdom on this? Is 161g of all-purpose flour 1 cup or 1 and 1 1/3 cups?

Also, I ended up using 1 1/3 cups and the cake came out very thick or dense. Tasted like too much flour. Does that support 161g = 1 cup? More importantly, should I just not use the “cup” measurement and only use the metric (grams)?

Thanks

 

[CharlieD]

If you have the way to measure 161 g, I'd stick with it. Cup measuring is not nearly as precise as actual weight and most commercial bakeries go by weight not by volume.
The reason the cake was too dense is because you used too much flour. Whenever possible, especially for baking, I’d recommend using exact measurement in weight.

 

[Katie H]

Welcome to DC.

See if conversion table for u.s. and metric | kitchen charts this helps.

 

[Andy M.]

A great deal depends on how the flour is measured. If you have a weight amount, always go with that.

If you fluff the flour in the container or sift it before measuring and don't pack it into the cup, it will be lighter. If you pack flour into a measuring cup, you could easily get a lot more than a cup into it. Because of these possible variations, weighing flour is always the best bet.