Types of Flour for Baking: A Quick Guide
Updated July 2026
Not all flour is the same, and using the wrong one can throw off your bake. Here’s the short version: plain flour is your all-purpose default; self-raising already has leavening built in; cake flour gives you a lighter crumb; and wholemeal or Hong Kong flour is for specific jobs (bread, dim sum/baos). Full breakdown below.
| Flour Type | Protein Content | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Plain/All-Purpose | 10-12% | Everything — the default |
| Self-Raising | Same as plain + raising agents | Quick cakes, no separate leavening needed |
| Cake Flour | 6-8% | Light, fluffy, pale cakes |
| Top Flour | 6-8% (same as cake flour) | Direct substitute for cake flour recipes |
| Wholemeal | Higher, more fibre | Breads, heavier bakes (not delicate cakes) |
| Hong Kong Flour | 8-10% | Dim sum, steamed buns, Chinese pastries |
Most cake and baking recipes call for plain or self-raising flour. Certain specialised ones call for wholemeal flour, which provides a different structure and texture to the baked goods.
When I started baking, I only knew about these 3 types of flour and never dared to experiment with others. This was a mistake, considering how much of a difference this knowledge has made to my passion for baking (and eating baked goods). Here’s a list of the different flours used in the kitchen when baking, along with their features, benefits, and how you can use them.
Bleached vs Unbleached
The label ‘unbleached’ plain or self-raising flour is becoming more common in the market, compared to maybe 10 years ago. Consumers are more conscious of the products they buy and the effects these products have on their bodies.
Bleached flour is treated with chemicals such as benzoyl peroxide and chlorine gas to create a whiter, fine-grain flour. This also lends the flour a softer texture, making the resulting baked good soft and voluminous. Bleached flour is used for cakes, pastries and pies. However, bleached flour is stripped of almost all it’s nutritional value, and is really just another form of sugar. Something you might want to consider before purchasing.
Unbleached flour is technically not unbleached – it is bleached naturally with oxygen. This lightens the flour by a small margin, but does not compromise the nutrients in the flour. Unbleached flour can be used for the same pastries and cakes as bleached flour. Recipes generally do not specify bleached or unbleached, and you can easily substitute one for another when baking.
Plain Flour
This is literally all purpose flour. It can be used for anything from cakes to bread, pastries, pies and even as a gravy thickener. Most recipes use this type of flour, unless stated otherwise. It has a protein content of 10 to 12%, making it versatile for most baked products. The protein content in flour determines the structure it lends to baked goods – the higher the protein, the stronger the flour, the more sturdy (hard) your baked goods.
Self Raising Flour
Self raising flour is just like plain flour, with one very big difference. It has both baking powder and salt (in some cases) added to the mix. You could substitute self-raising flour for plain flour in most cake recipes, just make sure to not add the leavening agents (i.e. baking powder and/or baking soda)
Cake Flour
Cake flour is a lighter flour that is more finely milled than all purpose or white flour. While it does not have raising agents added like Self-Raising Flour does, it’s primary purpose is to be used for cakes. The bleached and fine-milled quality of cake flour also ensures a much smaller protein content than plain flour, which means your cakes will be lighter, fluffier and paler in colour. I almost always use cake flour when I make cakes, unless otherwise stated.
Wholemeal Flour
Wholemeal or wholewheat flour is easily the most nutritious of the lot. Unlike white flour, wholemeal flour is made using the bran, endosperm and germ of a grain. This makes the wholemeal flour fibrous and lends it a light brown colour. It also has a grainy texture which can be clearly distinguished in a cake.
If you don’t intend to use wholemeal flour for breads or heavier baked items, then it’s best to only use it when the recipe calls for it. Wholemeal flour has a more earthy flavour profile that could affect cakes negatively. Alternatively, you can use a combination of both wholemeal and white flour. However, make sure you’re combining it with a flour that doesn’t have raising agents added to it.
Here’s a Carrot Cake recipe that can be made with wholemeal flour!
Hong Kong Flour
Hong Kong flour is similar to cake flour, in that it is highly bleached. However, it contains a slightly higher protein content (8% to 10%) as compared to cake flour (6% to 8%). This makes Hong Kong Flour ideal for Chinese pastries, including dim sum and steamed baos. However, if you’re in a pickle, you could use HK flour as a substitute for cake flour in your cakes. Bear in mind that some HK flour brands include salt in the formula, so do read the packaging carefully.
What About Top Flour?
If you’ve spotted “Top Flour” on the shelves at Phoon Huat or Redman and wondered how it fits in, here’s the quick answer: Top Flour is a cake flour brand widely available in Singapore and Malaysia, with a protein content similar to standard cake flour (around 6-8%). This makes it a direct substitute for cake flour in most recipes, so if a recipe calls for cake flour and you’ve only got Top Flour at home, you’re covered.
However, it is not the same as plain/all-purpose flour, which has a higher protein content (10-12%) and will give your bakes a denser, chewier texture if swapped in by mistake.
Bread Flour
Bread flour has the highest protein content of them all, perfect for making, well, breads. The gluten in bread flour (10% to 12%) gives bread dough an elastic texture when worked on. This then meets with the heat in the oven to produce bread with a much-desired chewy interior. I am not much of a bread-maker, hence I won’t be able to say much about this flour beyond what it can be used for.
These are the basic flours you might come across in the supermarket. While I experiment with the different flours when I bake, my advice to the beginner baker is to use self raising flour and plain flour. These two flours are the foundation of most baked goods, and less fussy to work with compared to the other flour types. Once you feel confident enough working with these flours, you can move on and try your hand at something with a more complex flavour and/or chemical composition.
Happy baking, cravers!