I find that if I have a seperate raising agent / baking powder then the instructions are on the side of the pot as for the amount to add to plain flour for each type of recipe.. e.g. sponge cakes , scones , biscuits .
Its a rough guide but it generally works ok.

Ashen , why do you add salt ?
I never add salt , 1/2 a teaspoon salt to a cup of flour seems a lot to me.

I was trying to find out how much baking soda to add to plain flour and I kept finding American sites with stupid US measurements - cups of this and cups of that etc. Eventually I found a site which used more sensible units. Ok so for anyone who doesn't know.

To make self-raising flour:

500g plain flour + 2 1/2 tsp. baking powder + a pinch of salt

Now maybe most of you know what 'cup' means but seriously, it is a stupid unit. I came across a recipe which said to use half a cup of butter. What the hell does that mean!

ush, excuse me for posting cup measurments, it's what I am in the habit of using and I will try to convert my recipes to weight measures if they are not already.  I must buy kitchen scales and will ask advice on the forum for which ones to choose.  I've made mistakes in converting a few times and I have noticed minerva in particular will post both measures for me, what a doll she is to do that, thanks Minerva!  I should offer the same courtesy to all of you, sorry if I haven't, it's just habit.  I'm old.

1 stick of butter in the U.S. is 4 ounces.

I would like to add that many things don't work the same way or are done differently depending on what part of the world you live in, learning about those differences gives you a window into some other corner of the globe, that's putting a nice shine to it, so there!

Last edited by MsPablo (Sun 02 Nov 08 11:48pm)

Thank you MsPablo for the conversion of 1 stick of butter.
I have tried to use American cooking books before but have had difficulty finding the correct conversion for this.

Alot of my recipes are measured by cups and some even use a dessert spoon measurement which is not an offical measurement.  It all just keeps you thinking as you prepare your food.

Knowing the origin of a recipe is always helpful as cup sizes and spoon sizes do vary between countries.

for cup I mean a cappuccino cup MsP, with "once" I'm already lost, I think it's important to keep the balance between butter and flour and egg when you use them but I'm hopeless with dosis, my accuracy is the main topic of conversation at table, they never cease trying to get me to improove .......... the same attitude of teachers with students, my husband is a teacher and I'm a too old student to do any better than confusione