Substituting Cake Flour for All-Purpose Flour

Cathi asks: When substituting cake flour in place of all purpose flour, do I need to change  measurements for any other ingredients?  ie cakes, cookies, pizza dough, pancakes?

Baking S.O.S. says: If you substitute cake flour for all-purpose flour in a recipe, you do not need to alter the quantities of the other ingredients in the recipe. However, I would suggest increasing the amount of cake flour a little bit.

Cake flour is lighter and fluffier than all-purpose flour, so it does not measure the same cup-for-cup.  So for each cup of all-purpose flour called for in a recipe, I would suggest using 2-4 extra tablespoons of cake flour.

One more note: Because cake flour is so soft and light, I would not suggest using it for pizza dough.  Pizza dough requires more structure because it is more like bread.  You need more gluten for more structure, and all-purpose flour contains more gluten than cake flour.  Bread flour is even better for pizza dough because it contains even more gluten.

But for soft, tender baked goods like cake and cookies, substituting cake flour for all-purpose would be perfectly fine.

I hope that helps!