Monday, September 13, 2010

How much is "1 cup"???

The measurement of "1 cup" really baffles me! I just had a failed attempt at making Banana Cake. ;( Since it was a failed attempt, I'm too embarrassed to post any pic.

The recipe called for 2 cups of plain flour. My measuring cup indicated that 1 cup = 200 ml. But when I googled "1 cup", WikiAnswers and many various websites indicated 1 cup = 236 ml or 240 ml. Then there were also websites that indicated 1 cup = 250 ml. Well, I figured that 10 ml shouldn't make too much of a difference. So I used 480 ml (2 cups) of flour.

But as I was folding the flour into the wet mix, I knew that something was wrong. The mixture was too dry... but I didn't know what I should add to a dry mixture. More eggs? More yogurt? More milk? I had no clue...

Since I was already "committed" to making the Banana cake, I might as well finished it, dry mixture or not, I simply just put it in the oven and hoped for the best...

As expected, the cake turned out to be too dry. So... maybe I should have used 200 ml = 1 cup instead?

I am so confused.... I guess I just have to try another time to figure it out!

4 comments:

Open Kitchen Concept said...

Oh.. yeah, I find this confusing too.. But that's why I don't like measuring in volume. 1 cup of sifted cake flour = 100g. :) It also means a level cup (buy those baking measuring cup) full of flour - but you shouldn't pack the flour when measuring..

ididitthisway said...

just get yourself one of those measuring cups that says 1 cup and you dont have to ever do such conversions again.

Petunia Lee said...

or else... you do everything by agar-ation like me... whilst following the recipe. If I don't understand I just make it up... too wet or too dry... add bit this or that.

Got accidents lah... but after 2 tries, can manage to get something decent.

Blur Ting said...

I have a plastic cup that I use for measuring. It shows cup and ml at the same time. So far so good.