What the difference between bread, pastry and cake flour?
Ralph P. Endicott, NY Bread flour is a flour made from a hard wheat, usually a blend of hard winter and hard spring wheat flours. It has more gluten in it than all purpose flour and thus becomes more elastic when kneaded; it is the flour of choice for yeast breads and is used largely by the bakery trade.. Pastry and cake flours are made from soft wheat, they are less glutinous and less stretchy when kneaded and more perfect for cake and cookie making. In the professional trade, cake flour is specifically designed for high quality cakes whereas pastry flour is reserved for cookies, pie crust and pastry. I have seen cake flour available to the consumer in the supermarket, but often already mixed with baking powder, thus named “self-rising”. For homemade cakes, pies and cookies, all purpose flour is okay. And, by the way, all purpose flour is a blend of different types of flours. It is just as it is described “all purpose” and can be used with satisfaction in all types of baking.
The simple answer has to do with the amount of protein in the flour. Bread flour has a lot, all-purpose less, and cake flour very little. This is why bread dough tightens up when you knead it–that’s the gluten in action. Usually, if your recipe just says "flour," that means all-purpose (AP) flour. Otherwise, it will specify which you need. I will quibble with the first answer on one point: at least in my part of the world, it’s not a problem to find cake flour that isn’t self-rising. The brand I use is called Swan’s Down, but I’ve used others when they’re available.
