Flour
- Provides structure in baked goods!
- Powder obtained from grinding cereal grains, the most common being wheat.
- Starch and proteins called gluten puff up in the oven, making the cake expand in size and sets a light airy texture.
- What makes good cake flour?
- Low-protein flour (7-9%) for soft and tender cakes
- Clean. Free of bran and wheat germ
- Flour with small and even particle size and little starch damage so it blends easily and gives smooth batter.
Fat
- Shortening: Fat weakens or "shortens" the dough by weakening, resulting in the product being softer and breaking easily.
- Creaming: Fat can trap air during beating and mixing. Batter consists of masses of tiny air bubbles trapped in drops of fat. Important to cake baking because the bubbles expand in the oven, making the cake light and airy.
- Flavor: Sometimes fats are used to enhance the flavor of a baked good, most commonly butter.
- Emulsifier: Fat chosen needs to be able to form an emulsion with the other ingredients in the batter.
Sugar
- Sweetener and involved in many processes
- Series of complex browning reactions occur above 160*C and the products of these form the brown crust of many baked goods. This amino-acid catalyzed caramelisation is called a Maillard reaction.
Baking Soda
- Sodium bicarbonate releases CO2 when heated.
- Almost never used on its own because the sodium carbonate produced is strongly alkaline which means bitter taste and harder to digest.
Baking Powder
- Basically a mixture of baking soda and a weak solid acid or acid salt.
- When dissolved in water and the temperature is raised, CO2 is released.
- The most common acids are cream of tartar, tartaric acid, sodium acid pyrophosphate, or acid calcium phosphate.
- Mostly, powder + soda are used together so the taste isn't as undesirable.
- The rate of CO2 production affects the quality and continuity of the cake.
- If too much CO2 is initially produced and the reaction ceases (if you open the oven at just the wrong time) the cake can "drop", or form a divot in the middle instead of a nice raised cake.
- Self-raising flour is flour with baking powder and acid.
- Proportions: 1 raised tsp baking powder to 1 cup of flour
- Beaten egg whites gives dough a light, airy texture because they contain lecithin, a protein which lines the outside of the air bubbles created during beating and protects them during baking.
- In unbeaten eggs, lecithin acts as a binder, holding the cake together.
Salt
- Enhances the flavor of cakes and "toughens up" the soft mixture of fat and sugar.
Liquid
- The amount of liquid in a cake determines what type of texture and density it will have.
- Less liquid will produce a denser cake (if you decrease the sugar as well, you will have yourself a pound cake!)
- Milk is most often used because it makes a smooth batter.
- Oil, though considered a fat, keeps the cake moist and is added during the liquid addition process.
- Buttermilk is sometimes used as the liquid. For substitution, use 1 Tbsp vinegar or lemon juice and enough milk to fill 1 cup.
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