I found this recipe in "Cooks Illustated". It calls for 1 1/2 cups (6
ounces) cake flour
1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) sugar My ? is "how can 1 1/2
be less in oz than 1 1/4. What am i missing ?
Thank you in advance Bill

The sugar is definitely higher than flour.
Your given ratio between the flour and sugar is 100/145. that is
already an extreme for a cake to be considered in the pound cake
category ( even with high ratio .classification).
It will be coyly sweet. Another thing is if tt will contains some
lemon juice that will further invert the sugar making the cake more
sweeter. But normally such lemon pound cake is made with grated lemon
peel as flavoring.
It should be only up to 125% sugar to 100 flour maximum( for your
quantities that will be only up to 7.5 ounces.) for that amount of
flour.
Meanwhile the classical pound cake ( low ratio) has an equivalent
amount of flour and sugar in weight for weight basis.
I was thinking that the flour in your recipe was calculated based on
the unsifted status of 120 grams per cu; then calculating the sugar it
will amount to 138% in relation to flour. Still a high for a lemon
pound cake.
Roy
Roy

You're trying to make volume and weight equal. Since sugar is denser than
flour, a higher weight of sugar could very well be less in volume than an
amount of flour that weighs less, up to a certain point.
For example, you have a cup of flour and a cup of sugar. The sugar is going
to weigh more because of its density. On the flip side, if you have six
ounces of sugar and six ounces of flour, there is going to be less sugar
than flour because of its density.
HTH
Peggy

"bill xx" > wrote in message
...
>I found this recipe in "Cooks Illustated". It calls for 1 1/2 cups (6
> ounces) cake flour
> 1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) sugar My ? is "how can 1 1/2
> be less in oz than 1 1/4. What am i missing ?
> Thank you in advance Bill
>

You're trying to make volume and weight equal. Since sugar is denser than
flour, a higher weight of sugar could very well be less in volume than an
amount of flour that weighs less, up to a certain point.
For example, you have a cup of flour and a cup of sugar. The sugar is going
to weigh more because of its density. On the flip side, if you have six
ounces of sugar and six ounces of flour, there is going to be less sugar
than flour because of its density.
HTH
Peggy

"bill xx" > wrote in message
...
>I found this recipe in "Cooks Illustated". It calls for 1 1/2 cups (6
> ounces) cake flour
> 1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) sugar My ? is "how can 1 1/2
> be less in oz than 1 1/4. What am i missing ?
> Thank you in advance Bill
>

"bill xx" > wrote in message
...
> I found this recipe in "Cooks Illustated". It calls for 1 1/2 cups (6
> ounces) cake flour
> 1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) sugar My ? is "how can 1 1/2
> be less in oz than 1 1/4. What am i missing ?
> Thank you in advance Bill
>

You aren't accounting for density. A cup of marshmallows weighs less than a
cup of butter. You can search the USDA database and get some examples of
what various food substances weigh. They generally have the weight for one
cup of a given food.
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

"bill xx" > wrote in message
...
> I found this recipe in "Cooks Illustated". It calls for 1 1/2 cups (6
> ounces) cake flour
> 1 1/4 cups (8 3/4 ounces) sugar My ? is "how can 1 1/2
> be less in oz than 1 1/4. What am i missing ?
> Thank you in advance Bill
>

You aren't accounting for density. A cup of marshmallows weighs less than a
cup of butter. You can search the USDA database and get some examples of
what various food substances weigh. They generally have the weight for one
cup of a given food.
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/