Kitchen Measuring Conversion Chart PDF: Every Unit Bakers Need
Why Bakers Need a Conversion Chart, Not a Guessing Game
Baking is chemistry with a side of patience, and the fastest way to ruin a recipe is to eyeball a measurement. A single mis-scooped cup of all-purpose flour can swing a recipe by 30 grams — roughly 25% of what the recipe intended — and that's the difference between tender cupcakes and dry, crumbly ones. Keeping a printable conversion chart taped inside a cabinet door means you never have to stop mid-recipe to search for whether a stick of butter is 113 or 227 grams.
The Core Volume Conversions
US recipes almost always use volume units, so these are the numbers to memorize or pin up. Note that a US cup is 240 ml (the FDA standard), not the 250 ml metric cup used in Australia, Canada, and the UK. If a recipe is from outside the US, that 4% difference adds up across multiple cups.
- 1 teaspoon = 5 ml
- 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons = 15 ml
- 1 fluid ounce = 2 tablespoons = 29.6 ml
- 1 cup = 16 tablespoons = 236.6 ml (round to 240 ml)
- 1 pint = 2 cups = 473 ml
- 1 quart = 4 cups = 946 ml
- 1 gallon = 4 quarts = 3.785 liters
Quick-Reference Conversion Table
| Measurement | US Standard | Metric | Baker's Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 teaspoon | 1 tsp | 5 ml | Vanilla, salt, leavening |
| 1 tablespoon | 1 tbsp | 15 ml | 3 tsp per tbsp |
| 1 fluid ounce | 1 fl oz | 29.6 ml | Not the same as 1 oz of weight |
| 1 cup | 16 tbsp | 240 ml | US cup; metric cup is 250 ml |
| 1 pint | 2 cups | 473 ml | Common for cream and milk |
| 1 quart | 4 cups | 946 ml | Stock, large liquid batches |
| 1 stick of butter | 1/2 cup, 4 oz | 113 g | 2 sticks = 1 cup = 227 g |
| 1 pound | 16 oz | 454 g | Standard flour bag = 2.27 kg |
| 1 ounce | 28.35 g | 28.35 g | Round to 28 g for speed |
| 1 kilogram | 2.2 lb | 1000 g | Scale conversions go here |
| 350°F oven | 350°F | 175°C | Standard baking temperature |
| 425°F oven | 425°F | 220°C | Pie crusts, pizza, biscuits |
Why You Should Weigh Everything
Cup measurements vary wildly depending on how the baker fills the cup. Scooping directly from the flour bag packs flour tight and can yield 150 g per cup instead of the standard 120 g — a 25% error. Spooning flour into the cup and leveling with a knife gets close to correct, but a $15 digital scale eliminates the argument entirely. Once you switch to grams, international recipes become simple: 250 g of flour is 250 g whether the recipe is from Copenhagen or Chicago.
Common Ingredient Weights Per Cup
These are the numbers worth printing and keeping next to your scale. Weights are for the standard US cup, measured by the spoon-and-level method unless noted.
- All-purpose flour: 120 g (4.25 oz)
- Bread flour: 127 g (4.5 oz)
- Cake flour: 115 g (4 oz)
- Granulated sugar: 200 g (7 oz)
- Packed brown sugar: 220 g (7.75 oz)
- Confectioners' sugar, sifted: 120 g (4.25 oz)
- Cocoa powder: 85 g (3 oz)
- Butter: 227 g (8 oz) per cup
- Honey or corn syrup: 340 g (12 oz) per cup
- Whole milk: 245 g (8.6 oz) per cup
- Old-fashioned rolled oats: 90 g (3.2 oz) per cup
- Uncooked white rice: 185 g (6.5 oz) per cup
Notice that honey weighs nearly three times what flour does per cup. This is exactly why weight-based baking produces consistent results across dry and wet ingredients.
Temperature Conversions Worth Memorizing
Most US ovens list Fahrenheit, but European and Australian recipes use Celsius. To convert, subtract 32 from the Fahrenheit temperature, multiply by 5, then divide by 9. Common baking targets: 300°F = 150°C (slow meringues), 325°F = 165°C (gentle cakes), 350°F = 175°C (the default), 375°F = 190°C (cookies), 400°F = 200°C (roasting), and 450°F = 230°C (artisan bread).
Getting the Most From a Printable PDF Chart
Print the chart on standard letter paper at 100% scale — do not select "fit to page," which shrinks text and can distort printed ruler graphics. Laminate it or slide it into a plastic sleeve if it's going near a mixer, and use a wet-erase marker to note your most-used conversions on the margin. Two spots worth a chart are the inside of a cabinet door and the back of your pantry door, so the numbers are visible without opening your phone with flour-covered hands.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a US cup the same as a metric cup? No. A US legal cup is 240 ml, while the metric cup used in Australia, Canada, and much of Europe is 250 ml. For small recipes the gap barely shows, but scaling to four cups means 40 ml of extra liquid — enough to thin a batter noticeably. Convert explicitly when the recipe's country of origin is unclear.
Should I measure brown sugar packed or loose? Packed. Nearly every recipe that calls for brown sugar assumes it's firmly pressed into the cup, which yields about 220 g per cup versus roughly 145 g loose. If you weigh it, use 220 g and skip the packing step entirely.
Can I convert volume to weight without ingredient-specific data? Only for water-like liquids, where 1 cup is about 240 g. Everything else — flour, sugar, oats, cocoa — has a different density, so 1 cup of one ingredient is not 1 cup of another by weight. Use the ingredient weights listed above or a trusted source such as the USDA FoodData Central database rather than estimating.