Plain vs self-raising flour

[oli]

I am making the chocolate alcohol Christmas cake, and it requires 2 C plain and 1 C self-raising flour. All I have in my pantry is all-purpose flour, cake flour and bread flour.

I am not sure what to do in this case.

[srhcb]

here you go!

[Waterzoy]

I don't understand what cake flour is. Assuming US all-purpose flour is basic flour with no added raising agents, I'd use three cups of this and a couple of levelled teaspoons of baking powder. I hope it works out well for you.

[srhcb]

I don't understand what cake flour is. Assuming US all-purpose flour is basic flour with no added raising agents, I'd use three cups of this and a couple of levelled teaspoons of baking powder. I hope it works out well for you.

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Cake Flour is a very "soft" flour used to produce tender baked goods like biscuits. It has about two-thirds the protein of AP flour. You can produce a similar effect by substituting one or two tablespoons of cornstarch for an equal amount of the AP flour in a recipe.

Some flours commonly used in the South were both self-rising and soft.

SB

[tino27]

To add on to what srhcd said, wheatberries come in different varieties. Some berries have less protein and are used to make "soft" flours. The terms soft and hard are related to the amount of glutenin and gliadin (which combine to form gluten in the presence of water) present in the ground flour. More gluten is better for bread, less gluten is better for biscuits and cakes. All Purpose flour is a blending of flours to try and hit the entire spectrum of use. Like srhcd said, "Self-Rising" could potentially be applied to any milled flour with the addition of a leavening agent.