Microwave cake baking offers improved textural properties.

Microwaves have great potential for use in food production. One important application involves baking, but there has been limited progress on this front. Microwave baking has the advantage of saving energy and time. But quality problems, including reduced height, tough texture caused by rapid moisture loss, and a lack of surface browning caused by surface cooling, are found in many microwave-baked products.

U.K. scientists examined the textural properties--springiness, moisture content, firmness and height--of microwave- and convective-baked Madeira cake to make a comparison of product quality. Madeira cake is a popular Old English traditional cake. It is a pound cake to which lemon zest is added halfway through baking. The research results suggest it is possible to produce a microwave-baked cake with equal, if not improved, textural properties as compared to cake that is baked convectively. Further research is required to improve overall product quality.

The researchers baked the cake batter in a bench-scale microwave oven at power outputs of 250 W and 900 W, and in a convective oven at 200 C. They determined the textural properties of samples as a function of baking time (40 seconds to 12 minutes) and storage times of up to seven days. The cake samples were subjected to a compressive force. The investigators recorded a force-distance curve.

The instrument used was a commercial texture analyzer with a 5-kg load cell. The baking approach had a notable effect on the textural properties of the cake. The cake baked at 250 W had the most desirable textural properties. The microwave produced a product with the greatest springiness, the highest moisture content and the least amount of firmness. The convective-baked cake had the greatest firmness, and better springiness and moisture retention as compared with cake baked in the microwave at 900 W.

Further information. Ronald Magee, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Queen's University Belfast, David Keir Building, Stranmillis Road, Belfast BT9 5AG, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom; phone: + 44 28 9097 4255; fax: + 44 28 9097 4627; email: [e-mail].