Anthea asks: Regarding flour for cakes: what’s better to use, all-purpose or self-rising? I baked humming bird cake recently with self-rising flour + baking powder (no baking soda). The cake ended up play dough-ish. I live in Australia, and my local supermarket doesn’t sell/stock all-purpose flour. How does one make all-purpose flour?
Baking S.O.S. says: I am going to start by assuming that self-rising flour in Australia is about the same as self-rising flour in America. (I hope that’s right!) But unfortunately, self-rising flour can vary by brand. Most contain added baking powder and salt and sometimes baking soda, too.
Typically, the best way to substitute self-rising flour for all-purpose flour is to simply omit the baking powder and salt from the recipe.
To be more exact, the ratio is: for every 1 Cup of flour, omit 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder and 1/2 tsp. salt.
When you have too much leavening in a recipe, it can cause the cake to rise too high and then fall flat, and my guess is that is why your cake turned out like play-dough. If you added baking powder to self-rising flour, it probably had too much leavening and actually became more dense rather than lighter. (I have done the exact same thing, too–very frustrating!!!)
One other suggestion: all leaveners (baking soda & baking powder) lose their effectiveness over time. If your self-rising flour is old, it is possible that your cake will not rise sufficiently because the leavening is no longer effective. This could have produced a dense cake, as well.
I hope one of these suggestions will help. Good luck!
Hello Chef,
Hope things are great your end. You’ve always been prompt in replying, and since am a huge follower of your website I always look to coming (running) for guidance.
I’ve come across several times a cake recipe asking for SELF RISING Flour…I have the all purpose flour, but have failed to procure a Self rising. Is there a method (precise) of making it?
Nigella Lawson, http://www.nigella.com/kitchen-queries/view/Self-Raising-Flour/3056 , did furnish the recipe, but I’ve some doubts.
This particular recipe I followed http://www.oetker.co.uk/uk-en/rezepte/r/chocolate-victoria-sponge-cake.html had cocoa and asked for 225gms of self rising flour. Nigella give the recipe for 150gms…what do I do for the remaining 75gms? Also, she mentions something about adding soda bicarbonate if we use cocoa, but does the chocolate victoria sponge cake recipe need it?
I would be really grateful to you for all the help. I am not a professional baker, i do it for passion.
I do hope you’d make my day by resolving my doubts.
happy Halloween
Hello Chef,
Hope things are great your end. You’ve always been prompt in replying, and since am a huge follower of your website I always look to coming (running) for guidance.
I’ve come across several times a cake recipe asking for SELF RISING Flour…I have the all purpose flour, but have failed to procure a Self rising. Is there a method (precise) of making it?Nigella Lawson, http://www.nigella.com/kitchen-queries/view/Self-Raising-Flour/3056 , did furnish the recipe, but I’ve some doubts.
This particular recipe I followed http://www.oetker.co.uk/uk-en/rezepte/r/chocolate-victoria-sponge-cake.html had cocoa and asked for 225gms of self rising flour. Nigella give the recipe for 150gms…what do I do for the remaining 75gms? Also, she mentions something about adding soda bicarbonate if we use cocoa, but does the chocolate victoria sponge cake recipe need it?
I would be really grateful to you for all the help. I am not a professional baker, i do it for passion.
I do hope you’d make my day by resolving my doubts.
happy Halloween
Thanks for your question!
I hope I can give you an answer that makes sense, given that I am not good at metric conversions, and we in the U.S. seem to be sticking steadfastly to our old system of measurements.
Having said that, there are several different things to consider in answering your question. First, it looks like the Chocolate Victoria Sponge Cake recipe calls for 175 grams of self-rising flour, not 225 grams, so the difference between Nigella Lawson’s recommended substitute and the amount called for in your specific recipe are not that far off.
What I would suggest you do is simple increase the amount of “homemade” self-rising flour you prepare, and then measure out only exactly what you need for the sponge cake recipe.
So for example: Nigella’s formula says to mix in 2 teaspoons of baking powder for every 150 grams of regular flour. And I would agree that you also need some extra leavening assistance when using acidic ingredients like cocoa powder, so you should also add in the extra 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda as she suggests. Since the chocolate sponge cake recipe needs a little more than 150 grams of self-rising flour, simply double Nigella’s formula (so mix 300 grams of flour + 4 teaspoons of baking powder + 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda), then weigh out only the 175 grams of flour that the recipe calls for, then save the rest for another recipe.
Here in America, I follow the advice of Shirley Corriher, a food scientist who has thoroughly tested the science of baking, and she recommends the following substitute for self-rising flour:
To make a substitute for 2 cups of self-rising flour, combine 1 cup of all-purpose flour + 1/2 cup of cake flour + 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder.
That requires buying one more type of specialty flour (cake flour) plus using U.S. measurements, so it seems like more of a challenge, so I would suggest trying Nigella’s recommendations first and seeing how that turns out. If the formula is reliable, then it should work just fine for the Chocolate Victoria Sponge Cake.
Good luck! Let me know how it turns out.