Cakes ; Foam-Porous Structure

Abstract

Cake batter and baked cake are complicated emulsions, and they may be defined as a multicomponent, heterogeneous dispersed system. Cake batter can be considered as a mixed colloidal system of a foam, an emulsion, and a suspension with an air content of 60 to 75 % by volume. Moreover, baked cake can be considered as a solid foam with an air cell content of 75 to 85 % by volume. The foam structure of cake batter is dynamically converted to the porous structure of baked cake during baking and it is therefore important to understand the role of foam structure of cake batter and baked cake.
Recent researches revealed that the cake system is holistically understood as the interaction between the dispersed and the continuous phase. The colloidal aspects of cake production, baking mechanism and cake quality are reviewed as followed.
(1) Foam formation in the cake batter
(2) Foam structure changes during baking
(3) Porous structure and cake quality