FORMULA BALANCING March 5, 2010 at 3:57 pm (Notes) FORMULA BALANCING Basic requirement of a cake is that it should have a pleasing appearance, with a thin crust, s be light, even textured and pleasant to eat. Ina fruit cake, the fruits should be evenly disper the crumb. Each ingredient has a definite function. If haphazard quantities of ingredients are used in a the resultant product will vary from day to day. Therefore in order to have consistently goc quality product, it becomes necessary that all the ingredients are used in a definite proporti in a proper manner. Thus a cake formula is an accurate record of the quantities of certain raw materials necessai make a particular type of cake. Now what is a balance? ‘There are four main ingredients necessary in the construction of a cake formula, they are fa eggs and sugar. Balance can be divided into 4 parts: 1.Toughners ~ they provide strength — Eggs, flour. 2.Tenderizers ~ they have to be carried. ~ Sugar, fat, milk, fruits. 3.Moisterners - have an opening effect. ~ Sugar, baking powder, eggs and fat. 4.Driers ~ flour, cocoa, milk solids. They absorb moisture. ‘Thus a balanced formula is one, which contains sufficient materials from gr.2 as can be carr gr-1. These should be balanced between the effects of gr.3 & 4. The oldest formula for a cake known to the baking industry is known as ‘pound all round’ In this formula there is sufficient strength provided by the eggs and flour to carry the sugar fat. ‘The general rules for balancing creaming method cakes made with regular shortening or bt are: 1. The sugar is equal to or less than the flour. 2. The fat equals the egg. 3. The eggs and liquid (milk and water) equals the flour. A “High ratio” cake has more sugar than flour while a “Low ratio” cake has either equal proportion of sugar and flour or sugar is less than flour. With the use of high ratio shortening cakes can now be made with more sugar than flour wSugar helps in retaining moisture and thus improves shelf life of cakes. So higher percentag sugar in cakes will further add to the shelf life of cakes. Addition of more sugar will necessi additional quantity of liquid (egg + water) in order for sugar to be effective. A normal cake formula will not tolerate additional amounts of liquid without deteriorating quality of cakes. But with high ratio shortening additional moisture can be incorporated alc special cake flours with finer granulation. Such cake flour are well - chlorinated, chlorinatic improves crumb colour and also lowers the gelatinization point of starch, making it possibl have a faster set in the oven, and thus minimizing possibility of escape of carbon dioxide. Low ratio cake 1. Flour is equal or less than sugar. 2. Shortening should not exceed egg 3. Liquid = egg + milk = sugar. High ratio cake 1. Sugar is more than the flour (110 ~ 160 sugar) 2. Eggs are more than the shortening (10%) 3. Liquid = eggs + milk = sugar + 25 (25 is an arbitrary figure which gives desirable result in product So a general formula for a high ratio cake: 1. 100 parts of flour 2. 30-80 parts of fat 3. 110-140 parts of sugar 4, 40-90 parts of eggs ‘And from the formula above we can find out the quantity of liquid milk.