Temperature Change of Cake Batter in Baking Process and Its Effect on the Quality of Cakes (Part 1)

-Sponge and Pound Cakes-

Abstract

We prepared cake batter for sponge and pound cakes with both 120 and 190 gram in weight in 12cm round cake pans. Cakes were baked under six different baking temperatures from 150°C to 200°C with 10°C intervals.
We examined how the temperature shifted inside these cakes during baking under pre-set baking temperature and also the effect of temperature changes on the final shape of the product, as a cake rose while baking.
We conclude from the results of our experiments as follows:
1) In all cases, the higher the baking temperatures were, the faster the inner temperature of cakes rose.
2) The sponge cake of 120g had the fastest rising speed of inner temperature. The sponge cake of 190g had the second faster speed and the pound cake of 190g had the slowest one.
3) It became clear that there were three stages in the changing pattern of the temperature. The first stage was until the temperature at the point of 1cm from both edge and bottom of the cake, became stable. The second stage was until the core temperature stabilised. The third stage was up to the completion of baking. A sponge cake rose mainly in the first stage (93-103% of the final height), barely did so in the second stage and became flat on the top. A pound cake rose to 77-84% of the final height in the first stage and kept on rising also in thes econd stage until it formed a mountain like shape on the top.
4) It can be concluded that the suitable temperature for baking sponge cake is around 160°C and that for pound cake about 180°C.