Full question
I made the Lemon Polenta Cake and I was just showing my mother in-law the recipe and I toggled back and forth between metric and cups. Now I’m a little worried. In grams, the sugar and almonds are equal (200g for each - this is the one I followed). But, in cups, the almond measure is twice the sugar (1 cup sugar and 2 cups almond meal). Is that because grams are a weighted measure and cups are volume? Will my cake be ok?
Our answer
Nigella's recipes on NIGELLA.COM give ingredient lists with measurements in both metric weights and US cup measures. US cup measures are given by volume and the weight of a cup of one ingredient will not be the same as the weight of a cup of another ingrdient as the ingredients have different densities and also pack into the cup differently. For the Lemon Polenta Cake (from KITCHEN) a cup of caster (superfine) sugar weights approximately 200g, so you need one cup, but a cup of ground almonds (almond meal) weighs approximately 100g, so you need two cups.
You should always only use one set of measurements, metric or cups, and not mix the two. Also for cup measurements for items like flour please note that we recommend using the "spoon and level" method for measuring as this gives the most consistent results. Spoon the flour into the cup until slightly heaping then use the flat back of a knife (or a palette knife) to sweep across the top of the cup so that the mesurement is level to the top of the cup.
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