Park Ridge, IL – Brand loyalty helps the snack cake industry survive, especially among men ages 18 to 35, a strong demographic for this category. Although facing stiff competition from other treats, snack cakes, including sponge cake-type products, are here to stay as long as manufacturers can optimize their products’ taste, texture, appearance and overall acceptability amongst consumers, balancing price with quality.1 New independent research shows that egg ingredients outperform egg replacement ingredients in sponge cake when evaluated with both analytical and organoleptic testing.
A research team from CuliNex, LLC, the nation’s premier clean label product development consultancy, elected to study sponge cake due to its universal availability within the snack cake industry and its simple flavor. Sponge cake, a type of foam cake in its simplest form, relies on flour, sugar, whole eggs and salt for its base ingredients. Many commercial formulas contain additional ingredients. Sponge cakes offer a toughness and resilient structure suitable for filling, frosting and packaging. Whole eggs, balanced with sugar and flour, contribute much to this structure, balanced with sugar and flour for slightly chewy, yet airy, finely grained, evenly textured cake.
Researchers prepared a control product made with eggs and compared it to seven different types of egg replacers commonly recommended by manufacturers for this type of application. The egg replacers included ingredients and blends based on starch, soy, fiber, whey, wheat and algae.
Several quantitative analytical and subjective sensory tests yielded results that highlight the differences between products prepared with eggs and the same formula prepared with replacers. Each replacement ingredient was used according to levels suggested by the manufacturer, with replacement varying from 20 to 100 percent.
Sponge cake quality most negatively affected by replacing eggs included batter viscosity and the finished cake’s color/appearance and texture. The control cake, made with whole eggs produced a product with golden brown color, a high rise, even top, uniformly open cell structure and sweet, eggy baked good, aroma and flavor. This won approval among the sensory panelists as the most appealing finished product
Different egg replacer ingredients display varying water absorption capacities. Emily Munday, CuliNex culinologist and a lead researcher said, “If an ingredient absorbs an excessive amount of water, such as fiber-based ingredients or some blends, including hydrocolloids, additional water may need to be added to the formula to obtain the correct batter viscosity to flow through production equipment.” She continued, “This can lengthen bake times to get the correct internal temperature and final moisture content, slowing the production process and producing an inferior cake.”
The sponge cake study is one of a series of trials being conducted according to industry standard protocol in popular baking applications. The complete white paper is available for download at www.REALeggs.org.
1 Atchley, Charlotte. "Missed Opportunities." 11 February 2014. Food Business News. web. 29 January 2015.
CuliNex, LLC
CuliNex is the industry’s premier consulting firm providing product development & strategic business services focused on clean label food products. Our consultants specialize in assisting retailers, food manufacturers, ingredient suppliers and multi-unit foodservice operators with achieving their growth goals by bringing successful products to market. Further information on CuliNex is available at www.culinex.biz.
RealEggs.org
RealEggs.org houses research studies that examine, explain and/or compare the functional properties of egg ingredients. This site is dedicated to providing the most recent, accurate and credible information about egg ingredients in all forms including liquid, dried and frozen whole eggs, egg yolks and egg whites. The studies and information contained on this site are provided for the benefit of benchtop formulators, researchers, plant managers, purchasing agents, marketing managers and others connected with the design, development or manufacture of food products for human consumption.
Source: CuliNex, LLC / RealEggs.org
