Volume versus weight, and how a kitchen scale makes your baking far more consistent.
Open an American cookbook and everything is in cups; open a European one and it’s in grams. They’re not the same kind of measurement, and understanding why is the key to more consistent baking.
A cup measures volume — how much space something takes up. A gram measures weight. Because ingredients have different densities, a cup of one thing weighs a different amount than a cup of another. A cup of all-purpose flour is about 120 grams; a cup of granulated sugar is about 200; a cup of honey is about 340. Same cup, very different weights.
The bigger problem with cups is consistency. Scoop flour straight from the bag and you pack it down; spoon it in gently and you don’t. That difference can swing a “cup” of flour from 120 to 150 grams — a 25% change that’s the difference between a tender cake and a dense one. A kitchen scale removes that variability entirely, which is why professional bakers weigh.
Put your bowl on the scale, press tare to zero it, and add each ingredient by weight — no measuring cups to wash. When a recipe only gives cups, run it through our Cups to Grams converter first and note the grams in the margin.