You know what is not easy? Taking pictures of flour.
I know, I know….food blogger problems…
There have always been a lot of recipes that I pass up on making because I reallllly don’t like to use white flour. It’s a weird thing. I don’t freak out if someone else makes something with it, but I just really prefer to use whole grains, especially when I’m creating things for Ari’s Menu.
Of course there are exceptions to the rule, but it always seems silly to buy an entire container of something I know I’ll only use once. In fact, I only really buy two flours: whole wheat pastry, and white whole wheat, but you know what? I would package this up and buy it in a heart beat!
I’ve never seen whole wheat cake flour in the grocery store, so I decided to get creative, and make my own. There are a lot of tutorials out there that teach you how to make your own cake flour, so I used to same concept, and just used whole wheat pastry in place of all purpose. You could probably do the same thing with white whole wheat flour as well, I’d imagine, and even plain old wheat, although it would probably bake a bit denser.
As soon as I made this, I used it to whip up a batch of cookies. Very special cookies. They came out amazing, so I’d say the flour was a big success! They baked up fluffy, and cake-like (which is perfect for these cookies). Creating the cake flour took me all of an extra 2 minutes in the process, so I would highly recommend giving it a try next time you find a recipe that calls for cake flour–here’s an easy way to healthy it up in minutes.
DIY Whole Wheat Cake Flour
yield 1 cup
- 1 cup minus 2 tbsp whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
Directions:
- Measure out 1 level cup of whole wheat cake flour and transfer to a medium mixing bowl. Remove 2 tbsp of flour and replace with 2 tbsp cornstarch. Lightly whisk together. Use immediately, or store in an airtight container just as you would any other flour.
This may win the prize for the most useful post ever. I NEVER have cake flour on hand. Had no idea it’s that simple to DIY.
Happy New Year!
Thanks Laura!! Happy New Year to you too
Why haven’t I thought of this? Great idea! I need to try this in the future!
I’ve been meaning to do it forever, and I can’t believe just how simple it was!
This post sounds just absurd to me
Im from northen Europe and we dont even have the cake flour in the store, so its kind of logical that you use baking powder in a recipe. But I understand how this could be useful in some parts of the world..
Hi Kristina, thanks for commenting. Actually, the purpose of cake flour is to provide a softer flour. It’s different than self-rising flour which requires no leavening. Many cake and/or cake-like cookie recipes call for it to provide a fluffier texture, so if you happen to come across a recipe that calls for cake flour in place of all-purpose, now you can make it, especially since they don’t carry it in the stores where you live
I am using whole wheat cake flour along with all purpose flour. Do I need baking powder, if so, how much?
Fay
Whatever your recipe calls for–it’s not self rising, just a softer flour with the addition of corn starch
I always bake my cakes using whole wheat flour. Never thought of this idea. I need to know one thing. Is whole wheat “pastry” flour different from our normal day-to-day whole wheat flour?
Whole wheat pastry flour, whole wheat cake flour, and regular whole wheat flour are actually all different! Whole wheat pastry flour is softer with a lower protein content making it softer and less grainy for baking. Cake flour is even lighter and has the least gluten/protein. You can buy all of these at the store, but I’ve never seen whole wheat cake flour for sale, so I looked up what they do to make white flour into cake flour and the answer was corn starch, so I just did the same with the wheat flour. Does that make sense? I may have just talked in circles, and I am happy to try to clarify further!