Whole Wheat Pastry Flour for Cakes?

I use whole wheat pastry flour for (non-yeast) sweet goods. Cakes, cupcakes, muffins, cookies, pies, any recipe that uses a chemical leavener works well with this soft wheat flour. I also use it for shortbreads and pie crusts that need no leavener.

The texture is a littlle gritty so when I'm baking for mainstream tastes I'll use part unbleached and part ww pastry flour. I just wrote Home Baking for Profit: Over 100 Best-Selling Bakery Recipes. Many of the recipes use part or all ww pastry flour.

Mimi

Regular or white whole wheat flour works great and it's cheaper than pastry flour.

this is just my HO.

WW pastry flour around here costs .59 per pound but a bit higher in protein [11%]  vs the 2%- 5% in cake flour. Blending the two may be a good/better idea?

For scones and muffins I've been using KArthur unbleached [4%] with great results. Good Luck!

In Maspeth(Queens) NY all I can get is organic ww pastry flour from Bob's Red Mill for $3.99(3 lb.bag) Regular whole wheat -Stop and Shop brand- it's only $2.29( 5lb bag). 

 I bake about 5 cakes a year (simple chocolate cake like that: http://przytulankaneo.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/second-wedding-anniversary-cake/)

and a a few pie crusts. I love whole grain waffles and pancakes.

Whole wheat pastry flour is more expensive than ww bread flour, but the results are dramatically different. If there's a health food store near you, purchase the ww pastry flour from their bulk bins. It's often fresher and cheaper than buying prepackaged name brand flour.

For times when I can't find the ww pastry, I use unbleached flour and add a tablespoon of wheat germ per cup of flour. It's not exacatly the same but far more palatable for my customers than using ww bread flour.

you can exchange up to 1/3 of the AP flour with whole wheat pastry flour. I use the Bob's Red Mill brand, substituting whole wheat pastry flour for some white flour in nearly all my pastries. The taste improves, and so does the shelf life.

Karin