Hi Maxine, well, the good news is that it sounds like the starter you received is healthy and active! As I've said before, there are lots of ways to create and maintain a sourdough starter, so I think it's fine for you to stick to the instructions that you were given with your starter. As far as the bread recipe you followed, it's a bit hard for me to say what happened without knowing more about the recipe and your process, although I doubt that the cake flour contributed to your wet, sticky dough if you only used it for 1/3 of one feeding leading up to baking. If the bread recipe calls for 2 cups water and 4 cups flour, that would result in a very wet dough (94% hydration), while adding only a cup of water would reduce the hydration to 47%, which would result in quite a stiff dough. The answer is likely somewhere in the middle, and will depend on how much sourdough starter is added to the recipe, and also how much salt. You might want to consider trying our Rustic Sourdough Bread recipe, which includes both yeast and sourdough starter. The added yeast in this recipe will provide rising insurance, and the hydration of this dough is not overly wet. If you don't have any yeast, you could also make this recipe without added yeast, but expect rise times to be longer and be sure to add your starter to the recipe when it's very active and ripe (at its peak of rising after having been fed at room temperture). I hope this helps! Let us know how it goes. 

Barb

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