Look closely at these images.

What do you notice

about the texture of the baked goods?
 Successful baking often depends on creating air in the mixture, and then
trapping these air bubbles while the mixture cooks. This creates a light bread or
cake that is pleasant to eat.
There are two main ways of introducing
air into a mixture.
Click on the images to find out more.

The normal way Cakes are made

of introducing light and fluffy
air into bread by the use of a
dough is by chemical raising
using yeast. agent.
 Yeast
The most common way that air is introduced to dough is with yeast. Yeast is a
microscopic fungus that feeds on sugar. As it feeds on the sugar, it produces
ethanol alcohol (which evaporates) and carbon dioxide, which is trapped in the
dough and forms air bubbles.

yeast
sugar ethanol alcohol carbon dioxide
 Kneading to Create Gluten
Flour contains proteins known as gliadin and glutenin. Moisture and movement
(through kneading or mixing) cause the gliadin and glutenin to form a mesh-like
structure of gluten strands.

Click on the dough to see what the gluten mesh looks like.

Gliadin Glutenin Water Gluten

 The gluten has created a mesh, which traps the carbon dioxide that has been
formed by the yeast feeding on the sugar. Think of gluten as a rubber balloon.
The balloons hold the gas, but if you have too many balloons the bread will be
too chewy.
 Different types of flour contain different amounts of gluten. If a baker wants
bread that is a bit chewy then they will choose a high gluten flour. If they want a
soft cake or pastry, they will choose flour that contains less gluten.
 Raising Agents
When making a cake, it’s not just the flour that is different. Most cakes are made
with chemical raising agents rather than yeast.

Click on the image to find out more about each raising agent.

Bicarbonate of soda is
Baking powder is a
an alkali that, when
combination of
Self-raising flour is mixed with an acid,
bicarbonate of soda and
plain flour that has had reacts to create carbon
cream of tartar. When
baking powder added to dioxide. This is the
moisture is added to the
it. same ingredient that
mix, it reacts to give off
gives bath bombs their
carbon dioxide.
fizz!
 Different acids can be used to
activate bicarbonate of soda. Lemon
juice or buttermilk are often used.
Cream of tartar is another choice,
which is why it is used alongside
the bicarbonate of soda in baking
powder. Cream of tartar is an acidic
salt left behind in barrels after
grapes are fermented into wine. Its
scientific name is potassium
hydrogen tartrate.
 Cakes
When making a cake, bakers also use mechanical methods to create air within the
cake. Air is trapped on the surface of sugar crystals when you cream sugar and fat
together, and also added when you sieve the flour.
 Sugar
The smaller sugar crystals in caster sugar can trap more air than the larger
crystals of granulated sugar.

caster granulated
sugar sugar
Cake makers will also add a source of protein and moisture to form a
protective layer around the air bubbles. This layer will expand as the bubbles
grow during the baking process.

Eggs

Flaxseeds
As the dough or cake mix is baked, the carbon dioxide, like all gases, expands in
the heat, creating larger bubbles. Then, the moisture in the bread is absorbed by
the starch in the flour, or evaporates, setting the bread or cake into its final
shape.
 Next time you’re baking, take a look at the recipe and think about the purpose of
each step.

If you want to explore this further, you

can find some fun experiments with
raising agents and gluten in The
Science of Baking Experiments.