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Each recipe is different, and accompanying ingredients (egg, sugar, butter or oil) are balanced to assure good texture of the final baked cake. If you change the flour, you often must change the balance of these other ingredients. In general, you should avoid any type of "pastry" flour for a cake, unless it is a heavier textured "coffee cake." The gluten in pastry flour will toughen most layer cakes. Whole wheat flour often can be substituted for 1/4 to 1/3 of the all-purpose flour called for in a recipe without changing the texture of the cake.