Baby's 1st birthday cake - help how big is a cup ?

[bearhug]

I'm not a natural at baking but really feel I ought to make DS's first birthday cake myself. I was looking at the Mumsnet Yellow Cake recipe which looks simple enough except it doesn't have any weights or measures.

It says one cup of this, 2 of the other etc. Does it matter how big the cup is, as long as I use the same one for each ingredient? Or is there a fixed size of cup?

Thanks

cup is american measurements i think. It is usually 3/4 of a mug

Food/ingredient UK US
Butter/margarine etc. 1 ounce 2 tablespoons
Butter/margarine etc. 1 pound 2 cups
Flour 1 pound 4 cups
Flour 1 ounce 1/4 of a cup
Treacle/syrup 1 ounce 1 tablespoon
Treacle/syrup 12 ounces 1 cup
Sugar 1 ounce 2 tablespoons
Sugar 1 pound 2 cups

hope that helps

1 tablespoon (tbsp) = 3 teaspoons (tsp)
1/16 cup = 1 tablespoon
1/8 cup = 2 tablespoons
1/6 cup = 2 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons
1/4 cup = 4 tablespoons
1/3 cup = 5 tablespoons + 1 teaspoon
3/8 cup = 6 tablespoons
1/2 cup = 8 tablespoons
2/3 cup = 10 tablespoons + 2 teaspoons
3/4 cup = 12 tablespoons

1 cup = 48 teaspoons
1 cup = 16 tablespoons
8 fluid ounces (fl oz) = 1 cup
1 pint (pt) = 2 cups
1 quart (qt) = 2 pints
4 cups = 1 quart
1 gallon (gal) = 4 quarts
FOUND A BETTER ONE [SMILE]
16 ounces (oz) = 1 pound (lb)
1 milliliter (ml) = 1 cubic centimeter (cc)
1 inch (in) = 2.54 centimeters (cm)
Source: United States Dept. of Agriculture (USDA).
U.S.?Metric Cooking Conversions
U.S. to Metric
Capacity Weight
1/5 teaspoon 1 milliliter 1 oz 28 grams
1 teaspoon 5 ml 1 pound 454 grams
1 tablespoon 15 ml
1 fluid oz 30 ml
1/5 cup 47 ml
1 cup 237 ml
2 cups (1 pint) 473 ml
4 cups (1 quart) .95 liter
4 quarts (1 gal.) 3.8 liters

I find the easiest thing to do is use a normal measuring jug - one cup is up to the 250ml mark, half a cup is up to the 125ml mark, and so forth. Much easier than weighing everything!

One cup is 16 tablespoons (so 1/4 of a cup is 4 tablespoons) - you can pour 16 tablespoons of water/flour/anything into an old plastic bottle and draw a line around the outside - then you have a cup measurer!

Or yes, you can use any size cup/container as long as you use the same one for all ingredients - unless one ingredient is measured differently, e.g. in teaspoons or grams or ml. Does that make sense?