Baking Ingredient Weight Converter

Last updated 2026-08-17

Every grams-to-cups converter we looked at prints one number per ingredient as if it were settled. It usually is not. King Arthur Baking and America's Test Kitchen disagree by 22 g — 18% — on a cup of all-purpose flour, and neither page says which measuring method (spooned-and-leveled, or scooped-and-swept) produced its number. On a 3-cup recipe that gap is 66 g, most of a half cup.

What we did not find Neither source states its measuring method on the page we fetched, so this tool does not guess at one. If your recipe names a source, use that source's column. If it does not, the spread itself is the honest answer: your flour amount has a real range, not a single value.

Reference table

Figures as published on each source's own page, fetched 2026-08-17. A dash means that source does not list the ingredient.

Ingredient (1 cup)	King Arthur Baking	America's Test Kitchen	Spread
All-purpose flour	120 g	142 g	22 g (18.3%)
Granulated white sugar	198 g	198 g	Agree
Packed brown sugar	213 g	198 g	15 g (7.6%)
Cake flour	—	113 g	Only one source
Whole wheat flour	—	156 g	Only one source
Confectioners' sugar	—	113 g	Only one source
Cocoa powder	—	85 g	Only one source
Butter	—	227 g	Only one source

Sources: King Arthur Baking, ingredient weight chart · America's Test Kitchen, baking conversion chart

Why sources disagree

Flour compacts. A cup you scoop straight from the bag packs more flour than a cup you spoon in loosely and level off, and the two techniques can differ by the 18% these two sources show. That is the leading explanation bakers give for spreads like this one — but it is our inference, not a claim either source makes about its own number, so we are stating it here as a plausible explanation rather than folding it into the calculator as fact.

Sugars compact far less, which is consistent with granulated sugar agreeing exactly (198 g) while flour does not — but two ingredients agreeing is not proof of a mechanism, just a data point that fits it.

What this does not do

It does not tell you which source your recipe meant. If the recipe names one, use that column.
It does not include the USDA figure some sites quote (125 g/cup for AP flour) because we could not verify it on a USDA-controlled URL — see the note above.
It covers eight common baking ingredients, not a full pantry. Use the custom option for anything else, sourced from wherever your recipe came from.

Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere. Checking a colour instead of a cup of flour? The colour contrast checker takes the same approach — it does not just report pass or fail, it shows how far off you are.