So with any recipe you can figure out how much baking powder to use based off the flour? What about the other indigence like the sugar and the oil is there also a formula to figure that also?
No. You asked me if the baking powder in your recipe was too high. The only way I could assess that is to calculate the baker’s percentages. But you posted was in cups and teaspoons, which is useless to make any analysis. So I converted it to metric weight. You then responded that the cake flour was 260 g. Which I said was an incorrect conversion for 2 cups of cake flour. But if you are using 260 g, then that increase would put the ratio in the ballpark.
I didn’t explained the two proper ways flour is measured using a measuring cup; the weights they total when measured. And listed the various websites that use the two different methods.
If someone is baking using a measuring cup it’s important that they understand how to measure the flour. If they use a recipe from King Flour, and they use a measuring cup, they must use the SPOON and LEVEL method because this method will yield 120g flour per cup.
If they use a recipe from SERIOUS EATS, and they use a measuring cup, they must use the DIP and LEVEL because this method will yield 140g flour per cup.
Baking is a chemical reaction of all the ingredients to time and temperature. Home bakers work from recipes. Recipes are made up for home bakers. A recipe is pre-measured ingredients and instructions on how to mix them. Professional bakers don’t use recipes. They use formulas.
A formula is established percentages of specific ingredients, the percentages of which have been calculated against the weight of the flour. A percentage is a number expressed as a fraction of 100.
To create a formula in baking, a baker takes a specific set of ingredients; then using the weight of the flour, calculates a percentage of each of the other ingredients based on the weight of the flour.
Depending on what they want to make, they change the percentage of the other ingredients. Flour is always 100%, but to make a chiffon cake 60% water is added. But to make a chocolate chip, 0% water is added.
The type and amount of leavening varies by what is being made as well. Flour is always 100%. In a chiffon cake, leavening is usually baking powder at 3.5% since it also has whipped egg whites to leaven. A butter cake made with all purpose flour might have 4.5%.
Chiffon Cake
DO NOT GREASE YOUR CAKE TIN | Baker’s Percentages
This is the formula | 8” test cake -
this would “recipe” |
cake flour | 100% | 113g |
leavening (normally baking powder) | 3.5% | 4g |
fine salt | 1.5% | 1.5g |
sugar #1 | 90% | 102g |
citrus zest | | |
vegetable oil | 50% | 56ml |
egg yolk | 50% | 56ml |
water* | 60% | 68ml |
vanilla extract | 2.5% | 3ml |
egg whites, 68°F | 100% | 113ml |
sugar #2 | 40% | 45g |
cream of tartar | 0.03% | 3.3 |