How heavy is a cup?

[lauzie]

Could anyone tell me what weight a 'cup' of butter would be? I can't get my head round solids being measured in cups!

will it make any difference that the flour and sugar are cups but not the butter?

Thanks x

A cup of water is 16oz; butter will be slightly less.

4oz.

hang on, that might be a half a cup. So 8oz. In US they sell butter in sticks and I think a cup is 2 sticks (a stick is definately 4oz).

Sorry - I'm not sure why I said 16oz - that is a US pint. A cup is half of that - 8oz.

lol, we are both out by a factor of two

It's definitely 8oz of water.

8oz it is then!

So if i do the butter in oz and the flour and sugar by the cup marks on my measuring jug it will work out ok?

Oops meant to say thanks!

The authentic way of measuring out the butter is to put a cup of water into your measuring jug, and then add the butter up to 16oz.

btw, if you are making an American recipe, you may fall foul of the differences in flour. Our flour has a much lower gluten level compared to US flour, so your recipe may still not come out right, even if you have the correct measurements.

would bread flour be a suitable substitute? that has more gluten doesn't it?

I'll give it a try, luckily my DH will eat anything so it won't go to waste if it all goes wrong!

So ST I put the water up to the 1 cup mark and then add the diff between the weight of that and 16oz?

Thanks again!

Put in 8oz of water, then add 8oz of butter. Total will be 16oz - you don't have to do any weighing.

Oh I see, sorry I'm obviously suffering from pregnancy head today as I have just realised how obvious that is- do apologise