Food Cake Research Paper

Main Body

The Major Components Which Are Present In Cake

Flour: Flour is the ingredient in which most baked products are based. It is made up of starch, protein sugar and minerals. The protein content in the flour decides what the end use of the flour will be.

Fats: Fats are solids that come from a variety of animals. Fats main functions are to shorten or tenderise the product, to trap air during creaming and separate the cake during baking to give good volume and texture. Fats also provide some nutritional value. Some unsaturated fats help to reduce cholesterol in the blood.

Eggs: Eggs provide structure, aeration, flavour and moisture. Eggs also tenderise cakes and add colour and nutritive value.

Sugar: Sugar gives cake sweetness. Sugar assists the aeration and stabilising of batters. Sugar also improves flavour and helps retain moisture keeping cakes softer for longer.

The protein which is found in milk also gives a soft crumb structure to cakes and contributes to the moisture, colour and flavour. Cakes that contain milk also tend to have a longer shelf life meaning the cakes will stay fresher for longer.

(Haegens, 2010)

(Carmel Enright, 2007)

The History of Cake Making

The first cakes where very different from cakes today they were more cake like. In the first cake recipes honey was used in the recipe to make the cakes sweeter. The first round cakes with icing were made around the 17th century. In the 19th century cake recipes were developed to include flour and baking powder to replace yeast which was used previously to make the cakes rise.

(Olver, 2015)

Many people have a different understanding of what cake is. The cakes we have now are very different from the first cakes which were made.

The earliest cakes which were discovered were in Switzerland and these cakes were flat rounds of crushed grains which would have been cooked on a hot stone in the ashes of a fire.

(Humble,