Unbleached flour in cake

[Norcalbaker59]

I normally use bleached cake flour as I prefer the fine crumb and light texture it produces.

Attempts to convert my chiffon cake recipes to unbleached AP
flour has been dismal failures. So I decided to convert my most durable cake, a pseudo Kentucky Butter Cake, to an unbleached all purpose flour recipe. And much to my delight it translates well.

@Becky, thank you for tiis on using unbleached flour in cake.

UK flour is definitely lower in protein than the unbleached flour available in the US. So I adjusted mixing time, added additional fat, and milk to my recipe.

With cake flour I mix a total of 90 seconds as I alternately add the flour and liquid. Keeping Becky’s advice in mind about not over mixing, I added flour in two additions instead of three and reduced the mixing time to less than 60 seconds.

I thought I should add additional fat so I used some sour cream and increased the whole milk.
I baked a small batch in a mini bundt pan.

I made a butter lemon verbena and elderflower simple syrup and soaked the cakes as soon as I pulled them out of the oven.

I must say so far they look pretty good.

This particular cake recipe is based on a Southern regional cake called a Kentucky Butter Cake. I’ve never adhered to the mixing method of this particular regional cake since all ingredients are dumped into the mixing bowl at once. The result is a heavy dense cake.

So my take on the cake was a combination mixing method with bleached cake flour.

But with the adjustments it produced a very nice fine crumb. It rose beautifully, and didn’t shrink.

I’ll test it again this weekend to make sure the results duplicate. I’m thinking the butter lemon verbena and elderflower flavor combination will make an excellent base for le fraisier, American strawberry shortcake, or Japanese strawberry cake. So I think I’ll make it into a strawberry cake for my brother’s family.

Out of the oven, no shrinking or sinking

Nice golden color that’s a hallmark of bundt cake

Uniform fine crumb

 

[Becky]

Ooh they look incredible! I'm so pleased to hear that your experiment went well, can't wait to hear more about the strawberry cake. Also I now want to buy a mini bundt pan!

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Ooh they look incredible! I'm so pleased to hear that your experiment went well, can't wait to hear more about the strawberry cake. Also I now want to buy a mini bundt pan!

Thanks. I love mini bundts. Single serving desserts rock. Serving is easy and it looks more elegant. This is my favorite bundt pan, sleek and modern.

 

[Liv711]

Hi there, could you please share tips on how you converted your recipe with bleached flour to unbleached flour? I am no longer able to source bleached cake flour and bleached all-purpose flour, and my cakes have never been the same again

 

[Norcalbaker59]

Hi there, could you please share tips on how you converted your recipe with bleached flour to unbleached flour? I am no longer able to source bleached cake flour and bleached all-purpose flour, and my cakes have never been the same again

Unfortunately you cannot convert a recipe from bleached cake flour to all bleached purpose flour or any unbleached flour.

Cake flour is milled from a different variety of wheat that is naturally very low in protein. And most the starchy flour from the endosperm is used. The protein is 8%, ash is below 45%. The flour is more finely milled compare all purpose flour.

All purpose flour is milled from a higher protein wheat. It contains more bran and germ, so protein is up to 11.5%, ash up to 60%. The flour is more coarse than cake flour.


All purpose flour absorbs for more liquid than cake flour. And unbleached all purpose flour will absorb even more liquid.

Since the performance of flour is so different, recipes need to be formulated for the specific type of flour (cake, all purpose, unbleached).

If you live in the UK, the plain flour is better for cake. The domestic wheat is naturally very low in protein, about 9%. It is still unbleached, so it does not perform like cake flour, but it is better for cake than an all purpose flour in other countries with the significantly higher protein.