17 Technology of cake manufacture

Ms. Deepika Goswami

Cakes are sweet baked products characterized by high level of sugar in the formulation and hence are foods of high calorific value. Among the various ingredient used flour, sugar, shortening and egg are the essential ingredients for cake manufacture. The optional ingredients are baking powder, milk, fruit etc. For cake manufacture the selection of ingredients is of paramount importance.

In general the cake formulation includes the following:

S. N.	Ingredient	% of flour
1	Flour	100
2	Sugar	90
3	Shortening	50
4	Milk	65
5	Egg	65
6	Sodium bicarbonate	1.11
7	Sodium acid pyrophosphate	1.35
8	Monocalcium phosphate	0.2

(Lebesi and Tzia, 2012)

For cake manufacture flour of the below mentioned quality needs to be selected:

Low protein flour is usually preferred for cake manufacture. This is so because the rise in cake is dependent on the aeration rather than on gluten development.
The flour should be finely ground because in batter formation the flour particles do not disintegrate to the same extent as in mixing of dough.
In case of high ratio cakes, the sugar increases the gelatinization temperature of starch causing problem in crumb-setting which ultimately cause the cake to collapse immediately after baking. In such case chlorinated flours are preferred.
Shortening is responsible for a more tender structure and preventing the dry mouth feel of cakes. While selecting shortening for cake manufacture the following points should be taken into consideration-
Fat should be plastic in nature. It should be solid at room temperature as well as during creaming process.
Granular fat should be avoided as it has very poor whipping quality.
In order to acquire specific characteristics in cakes, a combination of fats like hydrogenated shortening, butter or margarine may be used.
The texture of the fat should neither be too hard nor too soft as very hard shortening will not cream up well, while too soft shortening will not be able to retain aeration.

The cakes are leavened either by mechanical aeration of fat and sugar leading to entrapping air cells in the mixture or by using leavening agents. For cake manufacture usually double-acting baking powder is used. Eggs, egg white (ovalbumin), and to a lesser extent milk proteins are important foam stabilizers, which slow down the coalescence of air bubbles.

Emulsifiers and egg proteins reduce the foam-destabilizing effect of fat in foam type cakes by keeping the emulsified fat particles well-dissolved in the aqueous phase and preventing from destabilizing the thin foam lamella between the gas bubbles. These also enhance the incorporation of air into the batter during mixing by reducing surface tension.

Broadly, there are two types of cakes – shortened and unshortened. Shortened cakes contain shortening or butter as an essential ingredient which aid in leavening along with baking powder. Examples are chocolate, cake, pound cake etc. Unshortened cakes do not contain fat as a basic ingredient. They are leavened by air or steam. Example is sponge cake. There are different methods manufacturing cake-

1) Sugar batter method

2) Flour batter method

3) Blending method

4) Boiled method

5) Sugar water method

6) All in process

Sugar batter method

Creaming: In case of using different shortenings, these should be first creamed together in order to blend them thoroughly. Sugar is then added gradually avoiding the adverse effect in the aeration process. Very light texture and brighter appearance of the mixture indicates that the adequate aeration has been achieved.

Addition of dry ingredients: The well mixed blend of flour, baking powder and other dry ingredients is added to the mixture in portions. To avoid toughening of gluten, after addition of dry ingredients there should be minimum possible mixing action. Hence mixing of batter at low speed is essential for retaining the entrapped air as well as toughening of gluten.

Addition of liquid ingredients: When mixing of dry ingredients complete the liquid ingredients are added. Addition of liquids enhances the fluidity of batter to an optimum level required for gradual and uniform leavening of cake during baking operation.

Baking: The batter is poured on baking pan and baked at oC for minutes. The baked cake is then cooled and packaged/consumed.

Flour-Batter Method

The flour batter method is specially suited for making lean cakes which do not contain much fat or egg and most of aeration is achieved through baking powder.

Creaming of fat and flour: Fat and equal quantity of flour is creamed together till a light and fluffy mixture. During creaming the flour is added gradually. The advantage of this step is that as a major portion of the flour is coated with fat before addition of any liquid, the gluten development is avoided when the flour is mixed with liquid. Due to the same reason slightly strong flour may also find use in cake manufacture.

Addition of whipped mixture of egg and sugar: Egg and an equal quantity of sugar are whipped to a stiff froth. This is added in small portions to the creamed mixture of fat and flour to avoid the curdling of batter and after each addition, mixed thoroughly.

Addition of liquids: The remaining sugar is dissolved in milk or water and added to the mixture. Any colour or flavour is also added along with this liquid.

Addition of remaining flour: The properly mixed blend of remaining flour and baking powder is added and mixed gently. At this stage vigorous mixing may induce knocking out of air cells resulting into poor cake volume.

Blending Method

The blending method is used for manufacture of high sugar to flour ratio cakes.

Boiled Method

Sugar-Water Method

The cake from sugar-water has more aeration and better emulsification resulting into better texture and longer shelf life.

All in Process

After adding all the ingredients, the mixing is controlled as follows:

Half a minute at low speed: This is done so that all the dry ingredients are moistened without flying off from the bowl.

Two minute at fast speed: All the ingredients break and are incorporated evenly hroughout the mass. The batter is also well aerated.

Two minute at medium speed: Aeration achieved during the second stage is not evenly disturbed in the batter. By mixing at medium speed the large air cells break up into smaller cells and the aeration of the mixture becomes even.

One minute at low speed: This is done in order to eliminate any possible large air pockets and still finer breaking down of air cells.

Reference

Lebesi DM and Tzia C. 2012. Use of endoxylanase treated cereal brans for development of dietary fiber enriched cakes. Innovative Food Science and Emerging Technologies. 13: 207-214.