measurements; is it just me?

melt71

I'm always looking through this forum for recipes, at the moment I'm looking for an easy scone recipe that my daughter can make after school today, but it's always the same story - cups!! :mad:

Is it just me or does this drive anyone else MAD. I am not American and I doubt that the majority of people on here are, so why 'cups' as a measurement? It means going through the whole recipe and converting it to our measurements, which is quite longwinded if there are a few ingredients and it's just too much hassle for me I'm afraid

Do you all have cup measures? If so, where do you buy them from, I don't think I've ever seen them in the shops. Am I missing something here. Probably!

And whilst I'm posting does anybody have a sucessful scone recipe that is suitable for a 9 year old? Without cups! Thanks

No offence intended to our American members, I realise that for you cup measurements are the norm!

squeaky

Here ya go...

http://www.be-ro.co.uk/f_insp.htm

Click on scones at the bottom of the links on the right.

Or you might like to try their Children's Recipes

Addiscomber

I suspect it is because a lot of recipes are copied from American sites. I'm like you - I hate cup measures. I do have a couple of sets, metric and US, but I hardly ever use them for baking, only measuring out porridge oats or rice because I have learned by experience which size does for our family.

Cups for baking always strikes me as odd. How on earth do you measure solid fats with them?

Having said that, I do have some recipes from a magazine yonks ago, which I use on holiday - they are based on half or quarter of a packet of Stork and use a particular size of yoghurt pot for the dry ingredients. They make rustling up some home baking in a poorly equipped kitchen fairly easy.

Pink.

Hi melt,

This is the recipe I use to make scones:

8oz self raising flour
1 1/2 oz butter
pinch of salt
1 1/2tablespoons of sugar
5 fluid oz of milk

Rub the butter into the flour, add the salt and sugar then mix in the milk. Lightly knead it to make a dough. Roll out and cut out the scones. Make sure the scones are cut thickly enough to get a good rise.

I've seen cup measures in Tesco if that's any help. I usually bypass recipes that call for cups too because I can't be bothered converting them.

Pink

cupid_s

I was in tesco yesterday and noticed some cup measures.

There were 3 different 'cups' and the biggest said on it: 1 cup/8oz

Nicki

I've got a few different sets of cups measurements, as my DD tends to run off with one from the set, and you can't buy them separately, I don't think. You should be able to find them no problem in the homeware section of all the major supermarkets. Two of mine came from Tesco and Asda, and one came free with my breadmaker. Personally I like them, especially when baking with children, as you don't have to mess around with scales. Having said that my children are younger than yours so this probably doesn't apply to you!

So far as measuring fats is concerned, very few recipies require you to use fats straight from the fridge, and when the butter has been out of the fridge for half an hour or so, it is easy peasy to scoop out the required amount using the cup, with no backwards and forwards, cutting little slices off the block to make it up to or down to the weight you need.

melt71

There are different 'cup' measurements?? how do you know which 'cup' to use then :eek: I'm even more now so I'm going to move swiftly on to;

THANKS FOR REPLYING! :T

I will use the pink-winged recipe tonight and see what happens

Thanks again, you lot never let me down!

shell2001

I just use the cup I got with the bread-maker. Used it for making thriftladys chocolate pud but it measures in 1/4 so had to guess the 2/3. I agree very confussing much prefer oz's

Anastacia

I was 'anti-cup' in my pre breadmaker days but they really are easier, honest. Especially for slothe like me that cant be bothered to weigh things.

newlywed

I don't have a proper measure but to make thriftlady's choc fudge pud I found a mug that almost full is the required 8 oz cup size. So now I just guess half a cup etc using my nice yellow mug from the cupboard!

tawnyowls

melt71 wrote:

There are different 'cup' measurements?? how do you know which 'cup' to use then :eek:

English or American, depending on the recipe. I agree - it's stupid. Metric may be a pain, but at least kilograms and litres stay the same - the Yanks don't even measure pints and teaspoons the same as us! Anyway, here's a converter:

http://www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk/conv_index.htm