How to Convert Cups to Grams for Any Baking Ingredient

If you're baking from a recipe in cups but your scale shows grams (or vice versa), you need a conversion table. Different ingredients pack into a cup with very different masses — flour at 120 g, sugar at 200 g, honey at 340 g. Memorize these and your translations work every time.

The master table (1 U.S. cup = ?)

Why the values differ so much

Cups measure volume; weight measures mass. Density determines the relationship.

• Flour is fluffy and air-filled — low density (~0.5 g/ml).
• Sugar is crystalline and dense (~0.8 g/ml).
• Honey is liquid and viscous (~1.4 g/ml).
• Butter is solid and dense (~0.95 g/ml).

One U.S. cup = 240 ml. Multiply density by 240 to get grams per cup.

The flour problem

Flour is the most variable ingredient when measured by volume. The "fluff and pour" method gives ~120 g; "scoop and level" gives ~140–145 g; "scoop and shake" can hit 160 g. That's a 33% range for the same nominal "1 cup."

Most modern U.S. cookbooks specify the "spoon and level" method: stir the bag, spoon flour gently into the cup, level the top. This produces ~120 g per cup reliably.

King Arthur Baking, the U.S. flour gold standard, uses 120 g per cup. So does America's Test Kitchen. Most modern recipe writers have aligned with this.

Sugar is more reliable

Granulated sugar measures consistently because the crystals don't pack in variable ways. 1 cup ≈ 200 g pretty reliably across measurement techniques.

Brown sugar is the exception — it must be packed (pressed firmly into the cup) to measure correctly. Loosely scooped brown sugar gives ~150 g per cup; properly packed gives 220 g.

Liquid measurements

Liquids weigh roughly their volume in grams (because most are similar to water density).

• Water: 1 cup = 237 g (close to 240 ml because water has slightly less density than 1.0)
• Milk: 240 g (slightly denser than water due to dissolved solids)
• Cream: 240 g
• Oil: 218 g (oil is less dense than water)
• Honey/syrup: 340 g (much denser than water)

Eggs

U.S. large eggs:

• 1 large egg (in shell): 57 g
• 1 large egg (out of shell): 50 g
• 1 large egg yolk: 18 g
• 1 large egg white: 33 g

For weight-precise baking, weigh eggs out of shell; round up the next egg if needed.

Why pros work in grams

• Reproducible: 200 g of flour is always 200 g of flour.
• Scalable: 2× a recipe is 2× every gram amount, no compounding errors.
• Faster: tare the scale, add ingredients sequentially, no measuring cups to wash.
• Compatible: most international recipes use grams.

The only reason home recipes still use cups is tradition. Newer recipes increasingly include both — modern cookbooks and food sites like Smitten Kitchen, Bon Appétit, and Serious Eats all show weights alongside cups now.

How to weigh ingredients efficiently

1. Place mixing bowl on scale.
2. Press tare (zero out the bowl).
3. Add first ingredient until scale shows the target weight.
4. Press tare again (zero out the new total).
5. Add the next ingredient.

One bowl, no measuring cups, ingredient sums tracked automatically. Less cleanup, faster recipe execution.

Standard scale recommendations

• Capacity: at least 5 kg (11 lb).
• Precision: 1 g for general use; 0.1 g if you need precise yeast/salt amounts.
• Tare function: essential.
• Switch between g/oz: useful for U.S. recipes.

Brands: Escali Primo ($25), OXO Good Grips ($50), Salter (UK-favorite). Anything under $15 tends to round and drift.

Convert any ingredient

Our cup-to-gram converter handles every common baking ingredient with one click. Useful for translating recipes between cups and grams in either direction, or for verifying your own kitchen-table measurements against the standard values.