Cereal Chem 42:462 - 475.  |  VIEW ARTICLE

Effect of the Kind and Proportion of Flour Components and of Sucrose Level on Cake Structure.

V. Baldi, L. Little, and E. E. Hester. Copyright 1965 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

A bleached cake flour was fractionated by an acetic acid method into water-solubles, gluten, starch tailings, and prime starch. Flours were reconstituted from various proportions of the fractions. White cakes were baked using two formulas containing 100 and 125% sugar based on flour weight. Tailings in increasing amounts had an improving effect on volume and internal structure. The optimum amount of tailings, beyond which little or no additional increase in volume occurred, was significantly less for high- than for low-ratio cakes. This was believed to be due to greater swelling of the hemicelluloses of tailings at the higher sugar level, compensating for the smaller amount of this fraction, and resulting in a stronger and more stable structural matrix within the batter during mixing and baking. The main protein fractions, gluten and water- solubles, also markedly affected volume and structure, and a significant interaction was found between the proportion of these fractions and the formula. The combined protein fractions appear to stabilize the batter by binding the ingredients and, as is generally accepted, provide adequate structure to retain expanding gases during baking. The protein fractions tend to minimize mutual binding of starch granules upon cooling.