Cups to Grams

"How many grams in a cup" has no single answer, because a cup measures volume and a gram measures mass. The conversion between them is the ingredient's density, and common baking ingredients vary enormously: cocoa powder at 85 g per cup, flour at 125 g, sugar at 200 g, honey at 340 g. The heaviest is four times the lightest.

Converters that give one figure are effectively assuming water. That is fine for stock or milk and badly wrong for everything dry, which is exactly where accuracy matters most — the ratio of flour to fat to liquid is what decides whether a bake works.

Flour is worth knowing about specifically. The same cup can hold 120 g or 145 g depending on whether it was scooped or spooned and levelled, so even a correct density is only as good as the filling method. If a recipe gives both cups and grams, use the grams — they record how that author actually fills a cup.