Cups to grams
| Ingredient | Grams | Ounces |
|---|---|---|
| Water | 237 | 8.4 |
| Plain flour | 125 | 4.4 |
| Bread flour | 130 | 4.6 |
| White sugar | 200 | 7.1 |
| Brown sugar, packed | 220 | 7.8 |
| Icing sugar | 120 | 4.2 |
| Butter | 227 | 8.0 |
| Oil | 218 | 7.7 |
| Honey | 340 | 12.0 |
| Rolled oats | 90 | 3.2 |
| Cocoa powder | 85 | 3.0 |
| Rice, uncooked | 185 | 6.5 |
Scooping a cup straight from the bag compacts the flour and can give 150 grams. Spooning it in lightly and levelling gives about 125. Sifting first gives closer to 110. That is a 35% spread on the single most important ingredient in most baking, and it is the reason serious baking recipes are written in grams and serious bakers own a scale.
A US cup is 236.6 ml of volume, so the weight depends on the ingredient. One cup of plain flour is about 125 g, white sugar 200 g, butter 227 g and honey 340 g. There is no single cups-to-grams factor.
How to convert cups to grams
Cup measures assume a particular way of filling the cup, and recipes rarely say which. The convention behind the 125 g figure for flour is spoon-and-level: spoon flour loosely into the cup and scrape the top flat with a knife. Dipping the cup into the bag compacts it and adds up to a quarter more, which in a cake is the difference between tender and tough. If a recipe gives both cups and grams, the grams are what the author actually used.
Questions
It depends on the ingredient. Water is 237 g, flour about 125 g, sugar 200 g, butter 227 g.
About 125 g spooned and levelled. Scooping from the bag can give 150 g or more.
No. A US cup is 236.6 ml, an old imperial cup is 284 ml, and a metric cup is 250 ml. Most recipes online use the US cup.
Sixteen US tablespoons, or 48 teaspoons.
Speed and habit. A cup needs no scale, which matters more for a stew than for a cake.