Baking Measurements Conversions

Baking is great fun for all ages, but there is a real science behind it too. It may be tempting to cut corners by ‘guesstimating’ your measurements, but the measuring process is detrimental to the end product.

Taking the time to weigh your ingredients properly can help you achieve a perfect bake the first time around.

At our award-winning London bakery, we only use metric measures. This is so that we can guarantee consistency and also because we produce in larger batches than one would at home. Our Hero Sponge recipe, which has a cult following on social media, is a fool-proof recipe measured in grams.

At home when I'm baking with my young son however, I choose to use cups and spoons for measuring as it's a lot easier for him to use and I like encouraging his confidence (scales can come later!). This is the basis behind all my recipes for kids that I include in my StoryBakes book series too.

Although using American cups has become more popular in the UK due to ease and convenience, many recipes in the UK still favour traditional baking measurements, either metric measures (as preferred by us) ie. grams (g) and millilitres (ml), or imperial measures ie. ounces (oz) and pounds (lbs).

If you want to use an American recipe and would like to convert cups to grams, or vice versa, our easy baking measurement guide below will help you bake a cake Mary Berry would be proud of. No soggy bottoms here.

What baking measurements are there?

With so many different terms and numbers, it can be tricky to get your head around baking measurements. But it’s simple to get to grips with them when you break it down and stick to a couple of methods.

Cup and Spoon Measures

Measuring spoons tend to come in sets of six consisting of different sized tablespoons and teaspoons. Don’t be fooled into using the regular spoons you eat with, as graded spoons are the best for accuracy. When using liquids, simply fill the spoon to the very brim. Do the same for dry ingredients, but you’ll need to level off the overflow with a knife. If it asks for a heaped tablespoon, for example, you won’t have to level it off nearly as much.

Measuring cups are similar to spoons but are for larger amounts. There are two different types: graded and glass. Graded cups are best for dry ingredients and range in size, typically from ¼ cup to a whole cup. Glass cups, on the other hand, are better for liquids and tend to come in whole sizes rather than halves or quarters.

Pros of Using Cup and Spoon Measures

Quick and convenient for volume measures
Easy for baking with kids
Ideal for following American recipes
Cheaper than buying kitchen scales

Cons of Using Cup and Spoon Measures

Can be inaccurate
Can take longer to measure when scaling up recipes

Metric and Imperial Measurements

Most recipes in the UK are written with metric measures, and sometimes imperial. Both require the use of kitchen scales to weigh the ingredients. The most common units are grams and millilitres.

Pros of Using Metric/Imperial Measures

Accurate measurements for each ingredient
Easily scalable if wanting to increase batch size of recipe
Consistent results from consistent measurements

Cons of Using Metric/Imperial Measures

Requires kitchen scales
Could take a little longer
Not ideal for young children who aren't familiar with numerics yet

If you’d prefer to weigh out your ingredients, you’ll most likely be using grams for dry products and millilitres or litres for liquids. Here's a handy free printable download for UK to US baking measurements.

Grams to Cups by Ingredient

Sometimes it may be more accurate to work out the baking measurements by weighing each ingredient as they often vary. For example, a cup of unmelted butter would weigh significantly more than a cup of flour so you wouldn’t necessarily want to include the same amount of both. Speaking of butter, a cup of unmelted butter isn't the same as a cup of melted butter.

Knowing the grams to cups conversion of popular ingredients can speed up the process, if you’d rather weigh out your ingredients using grams. However, you can also use this guide for reference, if you don’t have scales or are using a recipe that features grams but you’d rather use cups.

Take a look at these easy conversions of essential ingredients from grams to cups before getting stuck into your latest baking project.

Baking Measurements Conversions Common Ingredients

Common Problems when Measuring Baking Ingredients

Tare - When measuring ingredients using kitchen scales, it is important to tare the scales before measuring any ingredient. Taring the scale means to zero-out the weight of whatever is already on the scale eg. measuring bowl, spoon, whisk, BEFORE weighing the ingredient. Sometimes this could be missed out and cause the bake to fail. To avoid this from happening, we advice novice bakers to measure out ingredients in their own bowls before adding them into the main mixing bowl. This way if you've forgotten to tare one ingredient, you have the opportunity to weigh it out separately again.

Substitutions - Picture this, you're weighing out your baking powder and you've just run out. You think you could substitute the remaining with Baking Soda. But sadly, it's not a straight swap. You can refer to substitution conversions or save the bake by getting more of the correct ingredients.

Miscounting - Now picture this, the recipe calls for 5 tablespoons of milk. One tablespoon, two tablespoons, three tablespoons, oh lemme have a sip of tea and oh I have a new whatsapp notification. Wait, how many tablespoons was I at?? A way to fix this situation is by weighing the ingredient on the scales to check.

Baking is a science but it's also a way to destress. There's absolutely no need or reason to stress over measurements. And the least stressful recipe is our Hero Sponge recipe which is ONE-BOWL, and all in grams. You do need scales, but you're guaranteed to never go wrong. So have a try and let us know how much you love it.