Cereal Chem 72:299-303  |  VIEW ARTICLE

Cake-Baking (High-Ratio White Layer) Properties of Egg White, Bovine Blood Plasma, and Their Protein Fractions.

M. O. Raeker and L. A. Johnson. Copyright 1995 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

We investigated the cake-baking properties of egg white, blood plasma, and their component proteins in a high-ratio white layer- cake formulation and describe the relationship between the functional properties of the proteins and cake quality. Egg white produced slightly larger cake volume, significantly more crowned profile, and finer crumb structure than did blood plasma. Among egg white proteins, cakes made with globulins had the highest volume, finest crumb structure, and most crowned profile compared with cakes made with other fractions. Ovalbumin produced similar volumes and profiles as egg white, but the crumb structure was coarser. Ovomucoid did not coagulate into a strong matrix during baking, and cakes made with conalbumin and lysozyme had decreased volume and very dense crumb structures. Fibrinogen produced the smallest cake volume among the blood plasma proteins. Albumin, the major protein in blood plasma, had cake- baking properties inferior to those of whole blood plasma, whereas gamma-globulin had superior properties. alpha-Globulin produced cakes with high volumes but coarse crumb structures. Separation of fibrinogen from blood plasma increased cake volumes and profiles. The correlation coefficient between cake volume and denaturation peak temperatures of the protein (composite data for all proteins) was significant (r = 0.944, P = 0.001). Foaming and emulsification properties did not significantly affect cake volume.