Pastry Flour vs. Cake Flour: 3 Differences

Cake flour comes from varieties of soft wheat—often soft red winter wheat—and has a low protein content (about six percent). Cake flour gets ground extra-fine, which results in a lighter, loosely structured crumb and fluffy texture. Cake flour is ideal for baked goods with a tender texture due to its low gluten content, which makes it easier to achieve lighter, tender textures when baking delicate sponges, pound cakes, layer cakes, and cupcakes.

Pastry flour is finely ground flour with a low protein content (about eight percent). Pastry flour has a low gluten content and is ideal for baked goods with a chewy, flakey, or crumbly texture, such as pie crust, croissants, scones, tarts, or quick breads.

Here are the main differences between pastry flour and cake flour:

1. 1. Protein content: Cake flour has a protein content of six percent, while pastry flour has a slightly higher protein content of eight percent. Therefore, cake flour has less gluten than pastry flour. The lower protein content affects the elasticity of baked goods.
2. 2. Texture: Cake flour and pastry flour are soft flours, but cake flour is finer than pastry flour. Pastry flour has slightly more structure.
3. 3. Usage: Pastry flour is ideal for airy, flakey pastries (such as croissants) and baked goods (like brownies and chocolate chip cookies). In contrast, cake flour baked goods are lighter in texture, like pound cakes and angel food cake recipes. (Cake flour and pastry flour have low gluten content, so you should not use them to make breads, pasta, or baked goods where gluten development is necessary.)

Cake and pastry flour are typically bleached, but you can purchase unbleached versions at the grocery store. You can also buy white and whole wheat versions of cake flour and pastry flour.

Cake flour and pastry flour are highly specialized flours that professional bakers use for specific reasons. If you're a home baker in a pinch, you can substitute one for the other, yielding a slight difference in texture. For best results, mix ½ cup of all-purpose flour and ½ cup of cake flour for every cup of pastry flour in a baking recipe.

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