CETvol87 DOI: 10.3303/CET2187004 Paper Received: 15 October 2020; Revised: 23 January 2021; Accepted: 18 April 2021 Please cite this article as: Principato L., Sala L., Duserm Garrido G., Spigno G., 2021, Development of Bakery Formulation for Sprayable Cake Preparation, Chemical Engineering Transactions, 87, 19-24 DOI:10.3303/CET2187004 CHEMICAL ENGINEERING TRANSACTIONS VOL. 87, 2021 A publication of The Italian Association of Chemical Engineering Online at www.cetjournal.it Guest Editors: Laura Piazza, Mauro Moresi, Francesco Donsì Copyright © 2021, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l. ISBN 978-88-95608-85-3; ISSN 2283-9216 Development of Bakery Formulation for Sprayable Cake Preparation Laura Principato, Luca Sala, Guillermo Duserm-Garrido, Giorgia Spigno* DiSTAS – Department for Sustainable Food Process, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Piacenza (Italy) The aim of this work was to create an innovative sprayable bakery mix for foam-style cake preparation. The main goal was to obtain a batter liquid enough to be easily and quickly dosed in a spray system but maintaining its structure during baking. A commercial liquid batter was selected, and its recipe modified to fit in a spray system. The commercial bakery mix was characterized in terms of physical-chemical, thermal, and rheological attributes. The product was then diluted with milk or whipping cream at a 3:1 (gproduct/gdiluent) ratio to modulate its viscosity to be sprayed in a nitrous oxide loaded siphon system. All the prepared samples were characterized in terms of physicochemical properties at different stages of cake production (before and after spraying, and after baking) to investigate the effect of dilution on rheology and spray-ability and on the texture of final cake. Before cooking, the dilution determined an increase of water content and activity and a remarkable difference in colour coordinates compared to the reference. However, the differences in physicochemical parameters were minimized after baking due to water content reduction and non-enzymatic browning phenomena. Despite that, the diluent type affected thermal characteristic peaks linked to fat melting and starch gelatinization phenomena, respectively. In fat melting, whipping cream addition maintained enthalpy values similar to control due to the high lipid content balancing the dilution effect. Instead, the greatest water amount in milk contributed to fat reduction and enthalpy reduction. In starch gelatinization, both milk and cream addition determined a reduction of the associated total energy due to a starch dilution effect. From a rheological point of view, a significant decrease in viscosity enabled the diluted batter to be sprayed. All samples displayed shear rate dependent and shear-thinning behaviour. When the batter was sprayed the values of apparent viscosity suddenly increased, probably due to a reduced droplet size, minor average inter- particle distance and the interaction of foaming agents and proteins. After baking, sprayed samples showed firmness and springiness comparable to the control cake. However, the cakes from both the diluted batters presented some cooking defects typical of an incorrect leavening process enforced by yeast dilution and lack in aeration stability during baking. 1. Introduction Cakes are one of the most consumed bakery products because of their delicious spongy texture and organoleptic and sensorial characteristics (Rodríguez-García et al., 2013). The physicochemical properties of cakes are largely dependent on the batter and cake structure. Cake batters are complex emulsions of fat or oil in an aqueous phase, containing flour (Lee, 2015; Aydogdu et al., 2018), eggs (Hedayati & Tehrani, 2018), sugar (Cavalcante & Mendes da Silva, 2015), and minor ingredients. The quality of high air-leavened products such as sponge cakes, cupcakes or muffin depends on many factors, including the ingredients used for batter preparation, aeration of batters, and processing conditions to guarantee the typical soft and fluffy texture (Chaiya & Pongsawatmanit, 2011). Among the ingredients, fats not only contribute to the sensorial in-mouth experience but they play a primary role as crumb structurer and stabilizer by entrapping air bubbles formed during leaving and cake expansion (Matsakidou et al., 2010) Egg has several binding, emulsifying and foaming functional properties (Wilderjans et al., 2013) Especially in foam-style cakes, the foam formation is provided by eggs in conjunction with other ingredients, such as sugar and acid, in order to delay gluten formation and air bubble production (Cavalcante & Mendes da Silva, 2015). Mixing mechanism is also crucial for preventing the wheat network and to enhance potential foam formation by eggs (Rodríguez-García, et al., 2014). During cake batter mixing, the movement of the mixing tool pushes materials aside, creating a void in 19 which the batter flows and small pockets of gases are entrained decreasing the density of batter. Low batter density is associated with good air incorporation and good bubble retention during mixing. On the other hand, during baking the batter viscosity controls air and leavening gas retention, that is important to guarantee the creation of a stable sponge structure that will not collapse after baking (Sahi & Alava, 2003). Assuring correct level of overrun in a liquid phase is the most critical factor in cake manufacturing and failing to do so could lead to several problems in final product standardization. A possible solution is to develop a mix in which air or gases are already incorporated into to the system during dosing. Sprayable formulation can modulate the right number of bubbles inside the structure providing the right elasticity and fluffiness of the bakery product. Some sprayable solutions already exist for pancakes (Batter Blaster, USA) and on 2014 a start-up (Spray Cake, USA) developed an idea to manufacture a sprayable cake batter, even if more recent updates were not found. The idea of sprayable cake is to create a ready-to-bake product easy to dose and quick to prepare, using a siphon loaded with pressurized gases (nitrous oxide or carbon dioxide) to spray the product and bake it in the oven or in the microwave (Lostie et al., 2002a, 2002b). During spraying, the batter-gas mix is expelled from the siphon, the gas quickly expands due to the pressure difference between the inside of the siphon and the outside at atmospheric pressure, making the product obtain a consistency like whipped cream. However, the main limitation is that cake batters possess a very high viscosity. Therefore, to spray them, the product must be diluted with suitable ingredients (e.g., dairy products such as milk or fresh whipping cream) that contain foaming agents that can drop the bulk density and promote air formation (Blankart et al., 2020; Green et al., 2013). The aim of this research was then to develop an innovative ready-to-bake product suitable to be sprayed. A commercial liquid batter was selected and opportunely diluted with milk or whipping cream at a 3:1 (gproduct/gdiluent) ratio in recipe to reduce the viscosity and to be used in a nitrous oxide loaded siphon system. 2. Materials and Methods 2.1 Materials Commercial refrigerated liquid batters for cakes (Soffice Margherita, Cameo), whole milk (Coop), and fresh cream for dessert (Centrale del latte) were purchased from local market. A cross-nozzle stainless-steel siphon (Upstartech, USA) was used as spray system loading nitrous oxide cartridge at 8.9 atm. 2.2 Sample preparation Liquid commercial batter was selected as a control reference. 150 g of cake mix were diluted adding 50 g of milk or fresh whipping cream at a 3:1 (gproduct/gdiluent) ratio according to preliminary tests. The batter was then homogenized for four minutes in a lab scale planetary mixer (Imetec Zero Glu, Italy). After mixing, the batter was scraped out from the walls and the bottom of the bowl to recover all the material and to obtain the samples before spraying (t0). Subsequently, the liquid was poured into a nitrous oxide-loaded siphon and sprayed to obtain the final batter (t1). The mixture was shaken for 10 seconds before use. All samples (control, t0 and t1 batters) were baked in a semi-industrial oven Wind+ 6040/5 (Polin, Italy) for 30 minutes at 165°C using aluminum (20x30cm) vessels. Three replicates were performed for each sample. 2.3 Sample Characterization Moisture Content, aw, pH and Color The moisture content was determined as weight loss of samples (5 g) after 24 h in an oven at 105 °C. The pH was measured using a pH meter (Hanna instruments, Italy) equipped with a Bluetooth probe system. The probe was inserted inside the batter and the pH value was recorded. Demineralized water was used to clean the probe after usage. Water activity (aw) was measured using an aw analyzer (AcquaLab, Astori tecnica, Italy). The sample was placed in a plastic cup filling half of its volume and then allocated into the instrument chamber to perform the measurement at a constant temperature of 25 °C. Color was measured using a colorimeter (Hunter lab D25 NC, USA). Sample was placed in plastic Petry dish and measured in different point. Trichromatic coordinates L*, a* and b* and color change or ∆E value (√∆ ∗ + ∆ ∗ + ∆ ∗ ) after baking were obtained. All the analyses were performed in triplicates (five replicates for color analysis). Rotational Rheology Rotational measurements were carried out using a controlled-stress rheometer (MCR 302, Anton Paar, Austria) provided by cup and bob device. A sample volume of 25 mL was poured into a 27 mm cup and bob attachment (cell height 40 mm, annular diameters 26.65 and 28.92 mm). Measurements were performed at 25 °C ± 0.1. The shear rate was set between 0.01-100 s-1. Samples were loaded into the cell and exposed to pre-shear of 10 s-1 for 10 s followed by 10 s rest according to the method by Taylor et al. (2009). All the measurements were carried out in triplicates. 20 Differential Scanning Calorimetry A microcalorimeter (Setaram, France) equipped with a 3D Calvet sensor was used to perform the analysis. The sample (0.5 g) was weighed in Hastelloy cells. The following thermal ramp was selected according to previous studies (Rodríguez-García et al., 2014; Turabi et al., 2010) with slight modification. The sample was hold at 20°C for 10 minutes. Then, temperature was increased up to 160°C at 0.8°C/min rate. Finally, after 5 min holding at 160°C, a cooling ramp was set to reach 50°C at 1°C/min rate. All tests were carried out in duplicates. Texture Profile Analysis (TPA) TPA analysis of final cakes in double compression was performed one hour after baking, with a Texture Analyzer TVT 6700 (Perten, Sweden). A 75 mm cylindrical probe was used to compress the sample up to 30% of the initial volume. The test speed was set at 2 mm/s. A holding time of 15 s was selected between the first and the second compression. Each sample was cut in rectangular 3x3 cm pieces with 1.5 cm height. According to Salehi and Kashanine (2018) method, the upper crust was removed in order not to bias the measurements. Firmness and springiness attributes were computed by instrument software. Measurements were carried out at 25 °C ± 0.1 and with five replicates for each sample. Statistical analysis Results are reported as mean values of the replicates with their corresponding standard deviations. The influence of leavening agent on characteristics of doughs and cakes was evaluated through one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey’s post-hoc test for means discrimination, at p ≤ 0.05 level, using statistical software SPSS® (version 21.0, SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). 3. Results and Discussion Moisture Content, aw, pH and Color The main results are resumed in Tab 1. All diluted samples show higher water activity and moisture content compared to the reference both before (0.92