Every recipe on Breakfast Bake lists grams next to cups. That’s not fussiness. It’s the single change most likely to make your baking turn out the way ours did.
The problem with cups
A measuring cup measures space, not amount. Flour is a powder that settles and compacts. Dip a cup straight into the bag and you press flour into it, and you can end up with 150 or even 160 grams. Sift it in and you might get 115. Same cup, a 40% difference.
In a pancake batter, that’s the difference between a pourable batter and a thick paste. In banana bread, it’s a moist loaf versus a dry, crumbly one.
How to weigh ingredients
- Put your mixing bowl on the scale and press tare (zero).
- Add the first ingredient until you reach the weight in the recipe.
- Press tare again and add the next ingredient to the same bowl.
Fewer measuring cups means fewer dishes, too.
If you don’t have a scale: spoon and level
- Fluff the flour in its bag or canister with a spoon.
- Spoon it into the measuring cup until it’s heaped. Don’t shake or tap the cup.
- Level it with the back of a knife.
That’s how we convert every recipe (1 cup of all-purpose flour = 125 g). You can see our whole weight chart in the grams to cups converter.
What about liquids and small amounts?
Liquids are much more consistent by volume, so cups and milliliters work fine. For baking soda, baking powder, salt and yeast, measuring spoons are reliable enough, though we still list grams for anyone scaling a recipe up.
The bottom line
If you bake more than once a month, a digital scale is the best few dollars you’ll spend. Until then, spoon and level, and you’ll be close.
