If you’re baking a cake and all you can find is regular all-purpose flour instead of cake flour don’t worry. There’s a pretty simple substitute for cake flour that you probably already have on hand (and can easily buy if you don’t): cornstarch. The substitution here is pretty simple: when you need a cup of cake flour measure it out with the all-purpose flour. Subtract two tablespoons of flour and replace it with two tablespoons of cornstarch and you’re good to go.
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 Pastry Living with Aya | 2022-07-17 11:55:35 |  32,300 Views |
Homemade Cake Flour – Does It REALLY Work the Same?? Let's Put It to the Test.
Make sure you use cornstarch and not cornflour — these products are sometimes mistaken for the same thing and their differences are relevant here. Cake flour makes for a soft cake. It has less protein than other flours and more protein means more gluten (and a tougher end product). Cornstarch contains protein so your cake will end up stickier if you accidentally add cornflour to it. Cornstarch has no protein and as the name suggests it’s loaded with starch — cake flour is just as starchy so using cornstarch helps push the recipe toward a similar consistency.
As the name suggests cake flour is good for cakes though it can also be used in other usually sweet treats like cookies and pies. It’s especially useful for certain cake recipes like red velvet cake. The occasional baker may not want to bother with multiple types of flour in their pantry but those who are serious about cakes will often swear by it. It’s made from a different type of wheat than all-purpose flour: this wheat is “softer” meaning it has a lower protein content. Since more protein leads to more gluten development during the baking process and baked goods with more gluten tend to be tougher and chewier cake flour takes things the other way creating a softer spongier baked good.
Cake flour is also ground more finely than other flours. This allows it to absorb more liquid and generally means that cake flour lends itself to a firm cake that doesn’t sink any more than other coarser flours. You may also come across pastry flour — it has similar properties to cake flour but is not the same. Because pastry flour has more protein than its cake-like counterpart it will tend to produce slightly more gluten than cake flour though it is still lower in protein than even regular all-purpose flour.
