Can you use Semolina flour instead of Tapioca flour in baking a cake?

Answer 1

I wrote the question, it is about using tapioca instead of semolina in a CHEESECAKE 'as a thickener' not using the entire amount of starch/flour in a regular cake. I am on a grainfree diet. The recipes I am using are from several different cultures. They use high protein cheeses like cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, quark and paneer. So far, 2 recipes call for small amounts of semolina which I cannot eat. Thanks

Answer 2

That would not be a great substitution - although both self-raising flour and semolina are made from wheat, the processing of semolina means that it absorbs less water than regular flour when not heated, but more water than regular flour when heated. (Think semolina pudding - a tiny bit of flour thickens a huge amount of milk).

Semolina has a distinctly grainy texture, resulting in crumbly cakes, which would not be achieved by using self-raising flour. (This may mean that you end up with a cake with the texture of a brick using this substitution). Also, semolina is not self-raising, which means you would have to deduct additional chemical raising agents in the recipe if you were to attempt to substitute SR flour (and probably end up with a level of raising agents which differs to the recipe).

In this case it is probably worth finding a recipe which you have the correct ingredients for, rather than attempting to substitute. A "semolina cake" without semolina is not a semolina cake.

The above information is correct, however, most semolina cake recipes call for some all purpose flour, in addition to the semolina. You can safely substitute self-raising flour for the all purpose flour in the recipe, cup for cup, as long as you omit the baking powder and salt.