You’d think so, right? But the internet is full of people googling this exact question. And I get it. When a recipe says “1/4 cup” and then says “plus another 1/4 cup,” your eye might just glaze over. You might panic. You might ask yourself: “Is that a whole cup? Half a cup? Am I supposed to combine them or use separate bowls?” Breathe. You are combining them. And the answer is half a cup.
Think of it like this: If you have one slice of pizza and I give you another slice, how many slices do you have? Two slices. But a whole pizza is four slices. So two slices is half the pizza. See? Pizza math is the only math worth caring about.
What if you don’t have a 1/2 cup measure?
Ah, here’s the real world problem. You’re in a tiny apartment kitchen, your measuring cups are from a dollar store, and the 1/2 cup is gone. (Did your roommate take it? Is it in a black hole under the fridge? We’ll never know.) So what do you do? You simply grab your 1/4 cup measure. Fill it. Dump it. Fill it again. Dump it again. That’s your 1/2 cup. Easy peasy.
Or, if you’re feeling extra, use a 1/3 cup plus a little extra. No. Don’t do that. You’ll screw it up. Stick with the two quarter cups. That’s the foolproof, no-baked-goods-will-be-ruined method.
Quarter Cup Means 1/4 at Tia Curtis blog
