Baking A Cake Essay

Chemistry is more than a subject that you take your sophomore year of highschool. Chemistry is a force that is constantly all around us in every single thing that we do, there is never a moment in our lives that does not somehow have something to do with chemistry. One of the biggest and most important roles that chemistry plays in our life is cooking, and everyone loves food. Whether it is something as easy as cooking an egg, or maybe as difficult as making homemade croissants. The main topic this paper will be speaking about will the science and chemistry of baking a cake, specifically a strawberry shortcake. First and foremost, the main ingredient to a strawberry shortcake is of course the strawberries, it’s kinda in the name. Fun fact

Some of the items that go into the cake would be all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. All-purpose flour is an ingredient that most bakers use because it is a mixture of hard wheat and soft wheat, meaning that there is an even balance of gluten. Hard wheat is a type of wheat that has a ton of gluten which makes it ideal for baking bread, but soft wheat is the opposite and has less gluten and is ideal for making cakes. Gluten is a storage of proteins that “grab” water molecules and then “grab” another protein named gliadin “‘these two little proteins -- glutenin and gliadin -- grab water first, and each other, to make these springy elastic sheets of gluten’” (Baking and Chemistry). Once you had added the all-purpose flour you are going to add the baking powder. Baking powder is the ingredient that best mimics yeast or baking soda; it will help make the batter rise once it has been hit with the catalyst. The baking powder is what puts air bubbles into the cake and makes the cake gain volume. Salt is overall the make or break part of making any kind of pastry because it helps slow down the process of fermentation that the baking powder has set into motion. It is what will make the cake cook it’s best in the