keepersdaughter
07-11-2007, 08:02 PM
Here are a few recipes I make at Christmas to sometimes give. I’ve had to eliminate several because I’m not sure if some of the ingredients would be available everywhere. I also now understand why it was called ‘Domestic Science’ at school. It’s a real science getting the correct ratio for baked goods, flour, etc. Here’s a bit of what I’ve discovered. American cup measure means volume meaning the amount of space occupied by solid, liquid or gas. Measurement by weight like using a scale for imperial or metric is just that, by weight or heaviness. Here is an example of the problems convertingsaccurately. 1 c. cake flour = 4 oz., 1c. all purpose/plain wholemeal/wheat flour = 4 ¼ oz., 1 c. wholewheat/meal flour = 5 ¼ oz. 1 c. shredded/dessicated coconut weighs 2 ½ oz 71 g, but 1 c./ 8 fl. Oz/240 ml. of peanut butter weighs 9 oz/255g. I some goggling and checked a few cookbooks, and there are many different variations someone else said 1 c. coconut weighs 3oz ! I’m a bit of a make it up as you go along, eyeball things type of cook and I love to cook. I’ve often eaten out and just tried to replicate the recipe at home. Sometimes successful, sometimes not. This is rather confusing but I’m trying to get it right.
I finally came across a book called The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum whom everyone agrees is a bit of a fanatic about getting weights and measurements as accurate as possible. So here is a chart of her recommendations which may be of use to anyone who has US cup measures for a recipe and needs conversion chart :-
Weight of 1 us cup =
Fats – butter/marg. 8 oz./227g
Flour:
Cake – sifted – 3.5oz/100g
All purpose/plain – 4oz/114g
Wholewheat/meal – 4.5oz/125g
Cornflour/starch –4.2oz/120g
Cocoa (sifted) – 2.oz/109g
Nuts:
Almonds finely ground 3.75/107g, chopped 4.2oz/120g
Walnuts/pecans – halves 3.5 oz/120g, coarsely chopped 4oz/114g.
Sugar:
Granulated and caster 7oz/200g
Powdered/icing 4oz/115g
Light brown7.66oz/217g
Liquids:
Heavy/double cream 8.12oz/232g
Milk 8.5oz/242g
Corn syrup 11.5oz/328g
Honey 11.75oz/336g
Water 8.337oz/236g
Baking powder 1 tsp/4.9g
Baking soda 1 tsp. 5g
Vanilla 1 tsp. 4g
I finally came across a book called The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum whom everyone agrees is a bit of a fanatic about getting weights and measurements as accurate as possible. So here is a chart of her recommendations which may be of use to anyone who has US cup measures for a recipe and needs conversion chart :-
Weight of 1 us cup =
Fats – butter/marg. 8 oz./227g
Flour:
Cake – sifted – 3.5oz/100g
All purpose/plain – 4oz/114g
Wholewheat/meal – 4.5oz/125g
Cornflour/starch –4.2oz/120g
Cocoa (sifted) – 2.oz/109g
Nuts:
Almonds finely ground 3.75/107g, chopped 4.2oz/120g
Walnuts/pecans – halves 3.5 oz/120g, coarsely chopped 4oz/114g.
Sugar:
Granulated and caster 7oz/200g
Powdered/icing 4oz/115g
Light brown7.66oz/217g
Liquids:
Heavy/double cream 8.12oz/232g
Milk 8.5oz/242g
Corn syrup 11.5oz/328g
Honey 11.75oz/336g
Water 8.337oz/236g
Baking powder 1 tsp/4.9g
Baking soda 1 tsp. 5g
Vanilla 1 tsp. 4g