Measuring Ingredients for baking

Baking works on a formula. There is a formula for cookies, cake, bread etc. Of course they are not the same, but most of them have a set of ratio for flour, leavening agent, sugar, fat and liquid. A lot can go wrong if the ingredients are measured incorrectly. Wrong measuring messes up the formula and that is the reason. Best way of measuring ingredients is by weight, but not every one has kitchen scale that has the precision needed to measure small amounts. So, most of the recipes are written to use cups and spoons. All the ingredients mentioned on this blog are measured in standard cups and spoons. People who are not used to baking might think it is alright to use some other cup and use that as a standard. Baking doesn't work like that. I actually use the same measuring cups and spoons even for a cooking recipe just to be consistent.

How should you measure the flour?
Best way of measuring flour is by spooning and leveling. If you have a 2 cup measuring cup, don't use it for flour. The weight packs the flour.

How to measure sugar?
If it is brown sugar and the recipe says packed cup, you are suppose to press and pack the cup with it. Granulated sugar is measured by scooping and leveling.

Here are the pictures of baking cups and spoons. (All the pictures were from google search)

For Dry measuring: All dry ingredients should be measured by leveling with a kitchen knife.

For Wet ingredients - measured at eye level:

Spoons :

One more..

The plastic ones can be found for just one dollar in a dollar store in U.S.

For the ease of conversion:
1 cup = 16 TBSP, 1/2 cup = 8 TBSP, 1/4 cup = 4 TBSP, 1/3 cup is approximately 5 TBSP, 1 TBSP = 3 tsp

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