Grams to Cups / Cups to Grams Conversions Calculator

About this calculator

Isn't it annoying when you find a recipe in US cups, and you only have scales or vice versa?

Well, I now have the solution... my Interactive Grams to Cups / Cups to Grams Calculator.

I've called it "grams to cups / cups to grams" as they're the conversions I get asked for most often, but actually, it can convert between grams, cups, ounces or millilitres for many common baking ingredients. So you can go from grams to cups, or cups to grams, from cups to millilitres or grams to ounces to your heart's content.

Simply select your ingredient, what you'd like to convert from and to and enter the amount, and it'll tell you exactly what you need.

The ingredients currently included in the calculator are:

• Water
• Sugars & Sweeteners - Caster Sugar, Granulated Sugar, Icing/Powdered Sugar, Brown Sugar, Maple Syrup, Runny Honey, Golden Syrup and Black Treacle
• Flours - Self-Raising Flour, Plain Flour, Spelt Flour, Wholemeal Flour and Cornflour
• Fats & Oils - Butter, Margarine and Vegetable Oil
• Nuts & Seeds - Ground Almonds, Chia Seeds and Linseeds/Flax Seeds
• Milk & Cream - Milk, Single Cream, Double Cream, Half-and-half, Whipping Cream, Heavy Cream, Buttermilk
• Other Ingredients - Cocoa Powder, Chocolate Chips, Mini Marshmallows, Popping Corn, Raisins, Cream Cheese, Desiccated Coconut, Pudding Rice, Nutella, Custard and Skimmed Milk Powder

I'll be adding new ingredients all the time. If there's one missing that you'd love to see here then do let me know in the comments.

How to fill a cup for baking

I asked my followers on social media about how they fill cups. The majority scoop ingredients such as flour or sugar out of the bag and then level the top, so that's the approach I've taken when measuring similar ingredients for my calculator. I also like to give the bag a little squeeze beforehand to break up any lumps.

Many conversion charts give 1 cup of flour as 120g. However, I've found the only way I can get it that low is to sift the flour and then use a spoon to fill the cup with the sifted flour. I don't know about you, but I prefer to sift flour after it's been measured, not before. So in my conversions, you'll find a cup of flour weighs more as it reflects how I fill a cup.

For ingredients in smaller packets, I pour them into the cup straight from the bag and level the top.

For soft ingredients such as butter or cream cheese, I push them into the cup with the back of a spoon to ensure any gaps are filled and then level the top.

Are you best using scales or cups for baking?

In baking accuracy is important, so for my baking recipes I recommend always using grams if you can.

There are several reasons I'd recommend using weighed ingredients rather than cups:

The conversion varies depending on how you fill your cup

When I was working out all of the conversions for this calculator, I found that how I filled a cup could significantly impact the amount of an ingredient I could fit in.

In the image below both cups appear to be full of flour. However, the one on the right weighs over 40% more than the one on the left, as I packed the flour in as tightly as possible.

A cup isn't always a cup

The official size of a US cup is 236.588ml, but most cups available to buy in the shops assume it to be 240ml for simplicity (this is what I've assumed in my calculator). However, there are some cup manufacturers sell cups that are 250ml (but keep a ½ cup at 120ml!).

This isn't a huge problem as long as you know which you own. A bigger problem is that not all cups sold are hugely accurate.

I own two sets of measuring cups, and neither holds the amount they're supposed to. In one set my ¼ cup holds 65ml (it should be 60ml), yet the full cup only holds 225ml when it should be 240ml (don't worry I've adjusted everything here to ensure it's accurate for a correctly-sized cup).

Some ingredients can be tricky to get into the cup

If you've got a recipe such as scones or shortcrust pastry that need cold butter straight from the fridge, how do you get it into the cup to measure it?

Not everything fits nicely in a cup

Imagine measuring walnuts. If you put them into a cup whole, you're going to fit in a lot less than if you finely chop them before adding them to the cup.

You got the ingredient into the cup, but how do you get it back out again?

There are also some ingredients such as Nutella or Black Treacle that are tricky to remove from the cup after filling. It's unlikely that you'll get everything out that you put in so you may well end up adding less to your mixture than the recipe calls for.

Do you really want to be washing up mid-baking?

Many sets of scales have a tare button which allows you to rest the scales to 0 so you can keep measuring more ingredients into one bowl. The is great as it means you can pour in everything you need for your mixture without getting lots of extra measuring utensils dirty.

Imagine you've got a recipe that calls for a cup of butter, flour, maple syrup and Nutella (not too sure what you'd be making!). To get an accurate measurement, you'll need to either own lots of cups or wash the cup up between each ingredient before you can measure the next one.

What is a scant cup?

A scant cup is just under a cup. As measurements go it's a bit vague! Similarly, the amount you can fit into a heaped cup can vary significantly depending on the shape of the cup. I therefore don't use either of these descriptions in my recipes (it's a flat cup, tablespoon or teaspoon for me).

How are the measurements in the calculator rounded?

To keep the conversions to amounts that can be easily measured in the kitchen I've rounded...

• Grams to the nearest gram
• Millilitres to the nearest millilitre
• Ounces to the nearest ¼ ounce
• Cups to the nearest
  • ¼ teaspoon (for under 1 teaspoon)
  • Teaspoon for under ¼ cup
  • Tablespoon for over ¼ cup

Conversion tables

In addition to the main calculator, I thought it would be helpful to provide conversion tables for a selection of the most popular ingredients.

Water

Sugar

Caster sugar

Granulated Sugar

Icing / powdered / confectioners sugar

Brown sugar (packed)

Flour

White flour - plain, all-purpose, self-raising, spelt

Wholemeal / brown flour

Cornflour (UK) / cornstarch (US)

Fats and oils

Butter / margarine

Vegetable oil

Milk / Cream

Cocoa Powder

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