How many times have you looked for cake flour at the market and either couldn’t find it, or cringed at the price?

Could it be true that it’s really THIS EASY to make your own cake flour?

Mix one cup of all-purpose flour with 2 tablespoons of cornstarch. Sift twice. Measure your cake flour after sifting.

The Damsel has heard that cake flour has a higher starch content than regular flour, and adding corn starch will simulate that. She hasn’t tried it personally but cooks she trusts and respects swear by the stuff. She usually backs slowly away from recipes that call for fussy stuff like cake flour. No more.

Think of the new vistas of baking that have just opened before your eyes.

sugar.

a blender or food processor.

cornstarch (optional).

the need to eat frosting.

The Damsel promises, this really does work and can be used any way “storebought” powered sugar is used. She sincerely wishes she knew about this before, because plain table sugar is quite a bit cheaper than powdered sugar, and this is ridiculously easy.

Put a cup of sugar in the blender and turn it on, adding 2 tablespoons of cornstarch if you have it. (Commercial powdered sugar has cornstarch in it to keep it from clumping. You can do the same if you like. But if you are using it immediately, there’s really no need. If you are making it ahead, then perhaps you should.)

Blend at a high speed for 30 seconds or so, depending on your blender. Eyeball the stuff. You may need to stir things around and go at it again, but the Damsel found no need. Good grief, it was really that easy.

An interesting note: 1 cup of granulated sugar makes a bit more than 1 cup powdered. That seems backwards to the Damsel’s brain. Many things seem backwards to the Damsel’s brain, including why children get stupider as they grow older. But she has made peace with her brain’s behavior and hopes the best for you and your own struggle for true perception.

P.S. Powdered sugar is also called:

• confectioner’s sugar
• icing sugar
• superfine sugar
• extra fine sugar

Is brown sugar more healthy than white sugar? Like brown rice vs. white rice, brown bread vs. white bread? Is it less refined?

The Damsel looked up an article about how commercial sugar producers make brown sugar and got confused. But it seems it comes down to this: maybe they used to do it differently, but nowadays, they make white sugar by refining out stuff, and make it brown by adding some of that stuff back in. #headscratch.

And, as you might guess, once the stuff is in your body, it can’t tell the difference. Sugar’s sugar.

But can you make brown sugar yourself at home? Yes! It’s as easy as kindergarten.

For every one cup of white sugar, add a tablespoon of molasses.

Mix well, being sure to scrape down the sides to coat all that nasty white stuff until it’s pleasantly brown. You can do it old school and just go at it with a fork, or an electric mixer will do the job quickly.

You can add another tablespoon at this point, for “dark” brown sugar. You can vary the kind of molasses you use, too, if you feel the need. The Damsel has enough going on in her life that she feels no need to add a brown sugar variable. But she gives you permission to go there. Have fun.

The resulting brown sugar is fluffy, yet clingy, so you can pack it into a measuring cup as usual. The Damsel found it interesting that when she measured, she had pretty much exactly what she started with: 1 cup + 1 tablespoon brown sugar.

No more running to the market when you’re in the middle of a cookie baking project! The Damsel feels in her heart that this method must also be cheaper than buying the plastic packages of brown sugar. But she has a cold, so she can’t do math today.

Perhaps you’ve heard. Or maybe you’ve learned from personal experience. Try this, and you’ll end up with suds irresponsibly billowing out of your dishwasher. The volume of suds is quite astonishing. On the bright side, your kitchen floor will never be cleaner–once you’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time cleaning up all the suds.

So–what if you’re out of dishwasher detergent? Is there anything you can use, just until you can get back to the store?

The Damsel will permit you to use the aforementioned liquid. But you must use only a couple of DROPS. If you can’t trust yourself to stop with two drops, then just forget about the whole thing.

Also, add a handful of baking soda to the machine…just throw it in. It will help control the sudsing, and is actually a pretty good cleaner itself. Some folks even say to just skip the two drops of dish soap and use the baking soda alone.

Others make this heretical statement: Take the dishes out of the dishwasher and wash the silly things by hand. The Damsel can hardly bring herself to write such words.