Baking Conversions: Cups, Grams, and Pounds Explained
Cooking is art; baking is science. If you add "roughly" a cup of flour, your cookies might turn into rocks.
Professional bakers weigh their ingredients. Why? Because a "cup" of flour can weigh anywhere from 120g to 150g depending on how packed it is.
The Case for Weighing (Grams vs. Lbs)
Most European recipes use Grams (g). Most US recipes use Cups or Pounds (lbs) for large bulk items like sugar or butter.
Converting Butter
- 1 Pound (lb) of Butter = 454 grams.
- 1 Stick of Butter = 1/4 lb = 113 grams.
Converting Flour
If a US recipe calls for 2 lbs of flour (for a large batch of bread):
2 lbs * 453.6 = 907 grams.
This is much easier to measure on a digital scale than scooping out 7 or 8 cups and losing count.
Pro Tip for Home Bakers
Buy a cheap digital scale. Then, use our converter to translate any recipe you find online into the units your scale uses. It will revolutionize your baking consistency.