Measuring 101

Quite possibly the #1 reason for recipe failures is due to incorrect measuring.

This will be the first thing I will ask you when I get the question,  “Gretchen, my recipe came out terrible! It looks nothing like yours on the video! What do you think went wrong?”

I will almost always answer “Double check your measurements, are you SURE you measured correctly?”

I have had terrible failures in baking many times before. So I always look to my measurements first when my recipes fail.

Often times I am rushing through, or simply not paying attention, or thinking I put in the baking powder when I actually did not. Or better yet, putting it in TWICE! Yikes, talk about LAVA CAKES!

Now, mistakes are mistakes, and I have made them whether using volume measures as well as weighing on the scale.
Forget to press the TARE function? Yep- mistakes happen.

But what I am talking more specifically about is INFERIOR measuring devices, such as the “Good Ol'” American Cups and Spoons!

Here’s the deal about the Volume Measuring System:

A cup is a cup. But what you put in that cup makes all the difference in the world!
Don’t be confused by thinking, “well, my cup measure says it is 8 ounces. So if I need 8 ounces of flour, then that’s 1 cup. Right?”
WRONG!
So you see we are already being tricked with weights vs. volume in the American measuring system.

The answer is easily explained when you think about 1 cup of feathers and 1 cup of rocks. Everyone knows these two things don’t weigh the same amount even though they have the same volume. This holds true for ingredients because density (therefore weight) does vary from ingredient to ingredient.

Not to mention, the word “ounce” can refer to both volume (capacity) and weight (mass).
There are ‘weight’ ounces and there are ‘fluid’ ounces. For example, you can have 4 ounces of flour (weight) and 4 fluid ounces of milk (volume).

Totally different things.

You could put a 1/2c of flour into a liquid measure that reads 1/2 c= 4oz. But this is FALSE. a 1/2 c of flour is NOT 4oz at all. It is more like 2.25oz.

And just for the record,  OUNCE = WEIGHT! So you are already doing it! Just INCORRECTLY!

Let’s take this thinking over to the Metric System.

If I need a cup of flour it will weigh 130g. But a cup of sugar weighs 200g.
This is the rocks vs feathers example and a good thing to always remember when getting used to this new way of measure.
Please take a moment to check out this video where I explain more in a visual about using a scale versus measuring cups CLICK HERE (and skip to 7:47 minutes in the video)

I know it is difficult to accept change.  But believe me,  if you can just invest less than $15 on a digital scale, your recipes will start to transform!
Now look, I do understand that some of you cannot simply spend the money right now. I GET IT!
So in the meantime you will have to do some extra work in converting your recipes. Check out this great website for help there INGREDIENT CONVERSIONS