Recipes are written in grams, cups, ounces, millilitres, sticks of butter and gas marks, sometimes all on the same page. This guide puts the numbers you need in one place: cups to grams for common ingredients, spoons, liquids, oven temperatures in °C, °F, fan and gas mark, safe cooking temperatures, and how to swap one cake tin for another. There’s a compact printable table at the end.
Recipes on World Recipe Club give metric weights first, with cups and spoons alongside. If you bake often, a digital kitchen scale is the most useful thing you can buy. It removes almost all the guesswork that comes with cups.
Why cups and grams don’t always agree
A cup measures volume, not weight. How much flour fits in a cup depends on how you fill it. Flour scooped straight from the bag and packed down can weigh a fifth more than flour spooned in lightly. That difference is enough to turn a soft cookie into a dry one, or a tender cake into a dense one.
Published charts differ by a few grams for the same reason. The figures below are rounded, standard values; where an ingredient varies a lot, the notes give a range.
How to measure a cup properly
- Flour, icing sugar and cocoa: stir the flour in the bag to loosen it, spoon it into the cup without shaking or tapping, then sweep the top level with the back of a knife.
- Granulated sugar, rice, lentils and couscous: pour or scoop into the cup and level the top. These settle the same way every time.
- Brown sugar: press it firmly into the cup so it holds the cup’s shape when tipped out. Recipes call this “packed”.
- Liquids: use a clear jug on the counter and read it at eye level. Oil the spoon lightly before measuring honey or syrup.
Cups to grams for common ingredients
These are based on a US cup of about 240 ml, with dry ingredients measured as described above. Weights are rounded to the nearest gram.
| Ingredient | 1 cup | ½ cup | ⅓ cup | ¼ cup | 1 tbsp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plain (all-purpose) flour | 125 g | 63 g | 42 g | 31 g | 8 g |
| Bread flour | 130 g | 65 g | 43 g | 33 g | 8 g |
| Wholemeal (whole wheat) flour | 120 g | 60 g | 40 g | 30 g | 8 g |
| Cornflour (cornstarch) | 128 g | 64 g | 43 g | 32 g | 8 g |
| Granulated sugar | 200 g | 100 g | 67 g | 50 g | 13 g |
| Brown sugar, packed | 210 g | 105 g | 70 g | 53 g | 13 g |
| Icing (powdered) sugar | 120 g | 60 g | 40 g | 30 g | 8 g |
| Butter | 227 g | 113 g | 76 g | 57 g | 14 g |
| Honey | 340 g | 170 g | 113 g | 85 g | 21 g |
| Cocoa powder | 85 g | 43 g | 28 g | 21 g | 5 g |
| Rolled oats | 90 g | 45 g | 30 g | 23 g | 6 g |
| Chocolate chips | 170 g | 85 g | 57 g | 43 g | 11 g |
| Long-grain white rice, uncooked | 185 g | 93 g | 62 g | 46 g | 12 g |
| Short-grain or risotto rice, uncooked | 200 g | 100 g | 67 g | 50 g | 13 g |
| Cooked white rice, loosely packed | 160 g | 80 g | 53 g | 40 g | 10 g |
| Lentils, dry (red, green or brown) | 190 g | 95 g | 63 g | 48 g | 12 g |
| Couscous, dry | 175 g | 88 g | 58 g | 44 g | 11 g |
| Water | 240 g | 120 g | 80 g | 60 g | 15 g |
| Milk | 245 g | 123 g | 82 g | 61 g | 15 g |
| Vegetable or olive oil | 218 g | 109 g | 73 g | 55 g | 14 g |
Notes on the trickier ones
Flour: 125 g per cup is a middle value for spooned and levelled plain flour. Some bakers and brands work on 120 g, and scooped flour can reach 140–150 g. If a recipe gives grams, use them.
Brown sugar: packed brown sugar weighs anywhere from about 200 g to 220 g a cup, depending on how hard you press and how moist the sugar is. Light and dark brown sugar weigh about the same.
Sugar in the UK: caster sugar can replace granulated sugar weight for weight. It dissolves faster, which helps in meringues and sponges, but the weight is what matters.
Rice and lentils: these pour and settle evenly, so cup measures for them are fairly reliable. One cup (185 g) of uncooked long-grain rice gives around 3 cups of cooked rice.
Gluten-free flour blends: weights vary by brand, usually from about 125 g to 150 g a cup. Our gluten-free chocolate chip cookies give the weight to use, because cups are especially unreliable with these blends.
Butter: sticks, blocks and spoons
American recipes often measure butter in sticks. Elsewhere, butter is sold in blocks of 250 g or 200 g and measured by weight.
- 1 US stick = ½ cup = 8 tablespoons = 113 g = 4 oz. Many recipes round this to 115 g.
- 2 sticks = 1 cup = 227 g. Often rounded to 225 g.
- 1 tablespoon of butter = 14 g, often rounded to 15 g.
- A 250 g block = about 1 cup plus 1½ tablespoons.
Spoons
- 1 teaspoon (tsp) = 5 ml
- 1 tablespoon (tbsp) = 15 ml = 3 teaspoons
- 2 tablespoons = 30 ml, about 1 US fluid ounce
- 4 tablespoons = ¼ cup = 60 ml
- 16 tablespoons = 1 cup
In Australia, a tablespoon is 20 ml, or 4 teaspoons. If an Australian recipe calls for a tablespoon of something strong, like salt, baking powder or chilli, use 4 teaspoons rather than 3.
Spoons should be level unless the recipe says “heaped”. A pinch is about ⅛ teaspoon or less.
What a teaspoon weighs
Most kitchen scales only weigh in whole grams, so small amounts are easier to measure by spoon. These figures help you convert.
| Ingredient | 1 tsp |
|---|---|
| Fine table or sea salt | 6 g |
| Morton kosher salt | 5 g |
| Diamond Crystal kosher salt | 3 g |
| Baking powder | 4 g |
| Bicarbonate of soda (baking soda) | 5 g |
| Instant or fast-action yeast | 3 g |
| Granulated sugar | 4 g |
| Ground spices | 2–3 g |
Salt is the one to watch. A teaspoon of fine salt weighs about twice as much as a teaspoon of Diamond Crystal kosher salt, so swapping one for the other by volume can make a dish far too salty or not salty enough. Check which salt a recipe means before you measure.
A standard sachet of instant yeast is 7 g, or about 2¼ teaspoons.
Liquids
The US cup holds 236.6 ml, rounded to 240 ml on nutrition labels and in most recipes. Australia, New Zealand and many other metric recipes use a 250 ml cup. For most cooking the difference doesn’t matter; for baking, it’s worth knowing which one a recipe means.
| US measure | Millilitres |
|---|---|
| 1 tbsp | 15 ml |
| ¼ cup | 60 ml |
| ⅓ cup | 80 ml |
| ½ cup | 120 ml |
| ⅔ cup | 160 ml |
| ¾ cup | 180 ml |
| 1 cup | 240 ml |
| 2 cups (1 US pint) | 475 ml |
| 4 cups (1 US quart) | 950 ml |
Pints and fluid ounces differ between countries:
- 1 US fluid ounce = 29.6 ml; 1 UK (imperial) fluid ounce = 28.4 ml.
- 1 US pint = 16 US fl oz = 473 ml.
- 1 UK pint = 20 imperial fl oz = 568 ml. An older British recipe asking for “a pint of milk” means 568 ml, not 473 ml.
One millilitre of water weighs 1 g, so you can weigh water straight into the bowl.
Weight: ounces and pounds
| Imperial | Metric |
|---|---|
| 1 oz | 28 g |
| 2 oz | 57 g |
| 4 oz (¼ lb) | 113 g |
| 8 oz (½ lb) | 227 g |
| 12 oz (¾ lb) | 340 g |
| 16 oz (1 lb) | 454 g |
| 2 lb | 907 g |
| 2 lb 3 oz (2.2 lb) | 1 kg |
Oven temperatures
Conventional °C figures are rounded to the nearest 10°C, as most recipes print them. The exact conversion is °C = (°F − 32) × 5 ÷ 9.
| Gas mark | °F | °C (conventional) | °C (fan) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ¼ | 225°F | 110°C | 90°C | Very cool |
| ½ | 250°F | 120°C | 100°C | Very cool |
| 1 | 275°F | 140°C | 120°C | Cool |
| 2 | 300°F | 150°C | 130°C | Cool |
| 3 | 325°F | 160°C | 140°C | Moderate |
| 4 | 350°F | 180°C | 160°C | Moderate |
| 5 | 375°F | 190°C | 170°C | Moderately hot |
| 6 | 400°F | 200°C | 180°C | Hot |
| 7 | 425°F | 220°C | 200°C | Hot |
| 8 | 450°F | 230°C | 210°C | Very hot |
| 9 | 475°F | 240°C | 220°C | Very hot |
Gas mark 3 sits between 160°C and 170°C, and British recipes use either. Our chicken tajine uses 170°C for its oven method, for example.
Fan ovens: a fan circulates hot air, so food cooks faster at the same setting. The usual adjustment is to set a fan oven about 20°C lower than a conventional temperature, and some cooks also start checking a few minutes early.
Ovens often run hotter or cooler than the dial says. An inexpensive oven thermometer on the middle shelf tells you what yours is really doing, and explains cakes that always take longer than the recipe says.
Safe internal temperatures
An instant-read thermometer takes the guesswork out of meat, poultry and reheated food. These are the figures used in mainstream food-safety guidance from the USDA. The UK Food Standards Agency advises cooking until steaming hot all the way through, or to 70°C held for 2 minutes, which gives the same level of safety.
| Food | °C | °F |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken and turkey, whole or minced | 74°C | 165°F |
| Minced beef, pork or lamb | 71°C | 160°F |
| Beef, pork, lamb and veal steaks, chops and roasts (rest 3 minutes) | 63°C | 145°F |
| Fish | 63°C | 145°F |
| Egg dishes, such as cooked custard bases | 71°C | 160°F |
| Leftovers and reheated dishes | 74°C | 165°F |
Chicken thighs are safe at 74°C but more tender at 80–85°C, when the connective tissue has softened. Our tiramisu cooks its yolks to 71°C, the safe figure for egg dishes.
Swapping cake tins and baking pans
If you don’t have the tin a recipe asks for, you can usually swap in another, as long as it holds about the same area of batter. The batter then sits at the same depth and bakes in roughly the same time.
Tins with roughly the same area
- A 23 cm (9 in) round has about the same area as a 20 cm (8 in) square, around 410 cm². You can swap one for the other.
- A 25 cm (10 in) round is close to a 23 cm (9 in) square, a little over 500 cm².
- A 23 × 33 cm (9 × 13 in) rectangle, around 750 cm², holds a little less than two 23 cm (9 in) rounds or two 20 cm (8 in) squares. Fill it to the same depth and you may have some batter left over for a few cupcakes.
- A 23 × 13 cm (9 × 5 in) loaf tin holds about 2 litres (8 cups). A 21 × 11 cm (8½ × 4½ in) tin holds about 1.5 litres (6 cups), so a recipe for the larger tin will overflow the smaller one. Fill any loaf tin no more than about two-thirds full.
Scaling a recipe to a different tin
To scale a recipe, compare the areas. For a round tin, the area is 3.14 × radius × radius. For a square or rectangle, it’s length × width.
Example: moving from a 20 cm round to a 23 cm round. The 20 cm tin has an area of 3.14 × 10 × 10 = 314 cm². The 23 cm tin has 3.14 × 11.5 × 11.5 = 415 cm². That’s 415 ÷ 314, or about 1.3 times larger, so make 1.3 times the recipe, or simply fill the bigger tin to the same depth and accept a slightly thinner cake.
Adjusting the baking time
- Same depth of batter: the baking time stays about the same. Start checking a few minutes early.
- Deeper batter (a smaller tin, or a loaf instead of a flat cake): it will take longer. Lowering the oven by 10–15°C helps the middle cook before the outside over-browns.
- Shallower batter: it will cook faster. Check early.
- Dark metal tins bake faster and brown more than shiny ones. Glass and ceramic dishes heat slowly but hold heat, so bakes in them often need a little longer.
Whatever the tin, test for doneness the way the recipe describes.
Eggs
Egg sizes aren’t the same everywhere. A US large egg weighs about 50 g out of its shell: roughly 30 g of white and 20 g of yolk. A UK medium egg is close to a US large, and a UK large egg is closer to a US extra-large. For most recipes one size up or down makes no difference. In delicate bakes, such as our soufflé pancakes, weighing the whites helps.
Printable quick-reference table
The most-used figures from this page, sized to print on one sheet and stick inside a cupboard door.
| Measure | Equals |
|---|---|
| 1 cup plain flour | 125 g |
| 1 cup bread flour | 130 g |
| 1 cup granulated sugar | 200 g |
| 1 cup brown sugar, packed | 210 g |
| 1 cup icing sugar | 120 g |
| 1 cup butter (2 sticks) | 227 g |
| 1 cup uncooked long-grain rice | 185 g |
| 1 cup dry lentils | 190 g |
| 1 cup water | 240 ml / 240 g |
| 1 cup milk | 240 ml / 245 g |
| 1 tbsp | 15 ml / 3 tsp |
| 1 tsp | 5 ml |
| 1 tsp fine salt | 6 g |
| 1 sachet instant yeast | 7 g / 2¼ tsp |
| 1 oz | 28 g |
| 1 lb | 454 g |
| 1 UK pint | 568 ml |
| 1 US pint | 473 ml |
| 180°C | 350°F / gas 4 / 160°C fan |
| 200°C | 400°F / gas 6 / 180°C fan |
| 220°C | 425°F / gas 7 / 200°C fan |
| Chicken, cooked | 74°C / 165°F |
Put it to use
These are the recipes on the site where accurate measuring matters most:
- Classic apple pie from scratch: an all-butter crust, where the weight of flour and the temperature of the butter make the difference.
- Brioche cinnamon rolls: a rich yeast dough baked in a 23 × 33 cm (9 × 13 in) pan.
- Gluten-free chocolate chip cookies: weigh the flour blend, as cups vary by brand.
- Vegan banana bread: a 23 × 13 cm (9 × 5 in) loaf tin, filled no more than two-thirds full.
- Chocolate lava cakes: timing is everything, so knowing your oven’s real temperature helps.
- Margherita pizza dough: a 65% hydration dough, where grams of water per 100 g of flour is the number to follow.
For more bakes, browse our desserts and breakfast recipes. If you’re cooking ahead or freezing what you’ve baked, our make-ahead, storage and freezing guide covers how long things keep.