Have you ever wondered why bakers use all-purpose flour rather than cake flour when baking? I sometimes wonder, and that's why today's blog post is about the difference between cake flour and all-purpose flour.
I was recently looking for a cake to make for our church's potluck this Sunday, and I couldn't figure out what flavor to do since I didn't want to do vanilla or chocolate. For the last potluck, I made a lemon cake. But this time, I wanted to do a flavor I hadn't done yet, so I chose a strawberry cake with strawberry frosting.
In the ingredients list, it called for cake flour. So I did research, and this is why people will sometimes use cake flour rather than all-purpose flour:
If you want a lighter texture, you would use cake flour since cake flour has less gluten and protein, which causes the cake to be more delicate and spongy. It also has a lighter color than all-purpose flour and is ground finely using soft wheat. You would use cake flour for pastries, cakes, or whatever baked goods you want to have a soft, delicate, light, or spongy texture. The downside is that if you're planning to have a lot of frosting or filling, the cake is liable to crumble or fall apart since it's so delicate and soft.
You would use all-purpose flour if you want a stronger, grittier texture that will hold up well. Since all-purpose flour is ground together from hard and soft wheat, it has more protein and gluten, which causes the texture to be stronger and will hold up well under weight. So, if you want to put lots of frosting, filling, or any heavy weight on your cakes, it will hold up better than if you had used cake flour. Just depends on what texture you like better.
I watched a video of a lady baking two cakes, one using all-purpose flour and the other with cake flour, just to see the difference. The cake made with cake flour seemed lighter in color than the cake made with all-purpose flour. She tried each of them and said the cake made with cake flour tasted so light, airy, and the texture was like a pillow. Then she tasted the cake made with all-purpose flour, which had a grittier and firmer texture. She said she liked the all-purpose flour cake better because she's so used to its texture.
You can use either one. It's really up to your personal preference.
Here is the video of the lady who baked the two cakes: