Ever want to bake a few cookies without making an entire recipe? Dividing measurements isn't as always as easy as cutting 1 cup in half. Sometimes a recipe calls for 1/3 cup or even worse...1 egg. There are a couple ways to divide measurements that will make dividing a recipe much easier and will let you bake your cake and eat it too.
Break It Down
A lot measurements in recipes are easy to divide and breakdown, especially when just dividing a recipe in half. Half of 1 cup is 1/2 cup, half of 1/2 cup is 1/4 cup, and half of 2/3 cups = 1/3 cup.
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Others aren't as simple. Take 3/4 cup for example. To divide it in half, it's helpful to break it down. Half of 3/4 cup would be 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons, or 6 tablespoons. Half of 1/3 cup is even trickier. 1/3 cup equals 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon so, half of 1/3 cup would be 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons.
Breaking everything down into tablespoons and teaspoons makes dividing measurements a little easier and helpful to know what cup measurements are made of.
- 1 cup = 16 tablespoons
- 3/4 cup = 12 tablespoons
- 1/2 cup = 8 tablespoons
- 1/3 cup = 5 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon
- 1/4 cup = 4 tablespoons
- 1 tablespoon = 3 teaspoons
Weigh It
Break out your kitchen scale and your calculator because the easiest way to divide a recipe in half is to weigh it then divide. This is especially helpful when you want to divide a recipe in half with a recipe that calls for an odd number of eggs.
Knowing how much ingredients weigh will allow you to divide them much more easily and much more accurately! When it comes to baking, kitchen scales are extremely useful and will give you more consistent success in the kitchen. They're also relatively inexpensive. Here are how much common ingredients weigh in grams.
- 1 cup all-purpose flour = 125 grams
- 1 cup brown sugar = 220 grams
- 1 cup granulated sugar = 200 grams
- 1 cup powdered sugar = 115 grams
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder = 90 grams
- 1 large egg (without shell) = roughly 50 grams (eggs can vary by a few grams)
Makinze is currently Food Editor for Delish, where she develops recipes, creates and hosts recipe videos and is our current baking queen.. Reigning from Oklahoma, she's also our go-to for all things regarding Midwestern cuisine. She's also our expert pie crimper.
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"1 Cup" is equal to 8 fluid ounces in US Standard Volume. It is a measure used in cooking.
A Metric Cup is slightly different: it is 250 milliliters (which is about 8.5 fluid ounces).
| ¼ cup | 2 oz | 4 Tbs | 63 ml |
| 1/3 cup | About 2¾ oz | About 5 Tbs | 83 ml |
| ½ cup | 4 oz | 8 Tbs | 125 ml |
| 2/3 cup | About 5¼ oz | About 11 Tbs | 167 ml |
| ¾ cup | 6 oz | 12 Tbs | 188 ml |
| 1 cup | 8 oz | 16 Tbs | 250 ml |
| 1 ¼ cup | 10 oz | 20 Tbs | 313 ml |
| 1 ½ cup | 12 oz | 24 Tbs | 375 ml |
| 1 ¾ cup | 14 oz | 28 Tbs | 438 ml |
| 2 cups | 16 oz | 32 Tbs | 500 ml |
| 4 cups | 32 oz | 64 Tbs | 1000 ml (1 liter) |
| 8 cups | 64 oz | 128 Tbs | 2000 ml (2 liters) |
(In italics: not exact)
Measuring cups are used to measure liquids, or powders like flour or sugar.
As we fill up the measuring cup, we need to look at which number it is filled to.
Here we have 2/3 cup (two-thirds of a cup) of milk.
And they can also measure milliliters (ml):
Here we have 150 ml.
It doesn't say "150" ... it says "50" ... but it is half-way between 100 and 200 so we can figure out it is 150 ml.
There are also special ones designed to hold an exact amount, such as these 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup measures.
They can also hold more than "1 Cup" of liquid.
This measuring cup holds up to 4 cups of liquid. If the liquid goes all the way to the 3, then there are 3 cups of liquid. Between the numbers we find fractions of a cup.
2 cups of a liquid is the same thing as 1 pint. So this measuring cup also holds 2 pints (4 cups equals 2 pints).
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If you double 3/4 of a cup, you’ll get 6/4 cups, which can be simplified as 3/2 cups or 1 1/2 cups. In decimals, 3/4 of a cup is .75 cups, and .75 doubled is 1.5 cups. Since a United States customary cup holds exactly 8 U.S. fluid ounces, 3/4 of a cup is exactly 6 ounces. When you double 3/4 of a cup, you’ll get 12 U.S. fluid ounces. When following recipes, it is important to note that U.S. customary volume measurements are not the same as the British imperial system even though they share the same names for the volume units.
Fractions
Getting a mental picture of fractions when measuring recipe portions may be easy and comes naturally for some, but it can be confusing for others. This issue may even be made more complicated by recipe writers who will require adding or doubling fractions, instead of writing the exact portions in whole numbers. Such recipes will have some home cooks scrambling to take a self-imposed crash course on fractions, wondering how they have forgotten something they mastered back in the third grade.
Fractions are a part of a whole, and it is written down with top number and a bottom number with a line in between. The top number is called a “numerator,” and the bottom number is called the “denominator.” Separating these two numbers is a division line called a “vinculum.”
How to Add Fractions
Adding fractions is easy. If the fractions have the same denominator, as in the case of 3/4, add the numerators and retain the common denominator, thereby giving you 6/4. If the fractions do not have the same denominator, such as 1/3 + 1/4, multiply the numerators with the denominators of the other fraction (1×3 + 1×4) and add the results (3+4 = 7), which becomes your new numerator. Multiply the denominator of the two fractions (3×4), and the result (12) is your new denominator. Thus, 1/3 + 1/4 will give you 7/12.
Improper Fractions
Doubling or adding 3/4 + 3/4 gives you 6/4. Fractions with a numerator higher than their denominator are called improper fractions. Improper fractions often represent whole numbers that are greater than one. You can convert improper fractions into mixed fractions to make it easier for you to understand recipe portions.
How to Convert Improper Fractions to Mixed Fractions
To convert improper fractions into mixed fractions, divide the numerator by the denominator, in this case, 6 ÷ 4 = 1 with the remainder 2. Write down the whole number 1 write down the remainder 2 as the new numerator over the denominator. Hence, 1 2/4. Simplify the fraction 2/4 to arrive at 1/2, and you’ll get 1 1/2.
Doubling 3/4 cups, therefore, will give you 1 1/2 cups. To simplify fractions, divide both the numerator and the denominator by 2 until you arrive at numbers where one or both the numerator and denominator can no longer be divided by 2. Another way to simplify fractions is by dividing both the numerator and denominator by their greatest common factor.
Converting Fractions in Decimals
Fractions represent division, which means that dividing the numerator by the denominator gives you its equivalent in decimals. A simple example is 1/2 where 1 ÷ 2 = .5. To convert improper fractions to decimals, convert it into a mixed fraction as shown earlier, and then convert the fraction accompanying the whole number into decimals.
US Customary vs. British Imperial Systems of Measurement
As mentioned earlier, a U.S. customary cup holds 8 fluid ounces. Two U.S. cups are equivalent to 1 U.S. pint, 2 U.S. pints make a U.S. quart, and 4 quarts is equivalent to a U.S. gallon. The U.S. customary system is different in increments and measurements compared to the imperial system even though the units share the same names. An imperial cup holds 10 imperial fluid ounces, 2 imperial cups is equivalent to an imperial pint, 2 imperial pints equal an imperial quart, and four imperial quarts equal an imperial gallon. A U.S. fluid ounce is also slightly bigger at 29.573 milliliters (mL) to the 28.412 mL of the imperial fluid ounce.
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