If you have grown up in this generation, chances are that you might have definitely googled- ‘How to make a cake?‘ However, you might have not googled- ‘What type of flour to choose?’ Don’t worry! Hunar Online is there to help you with every detail on how to make a cake.
Cake Making Material:
What are the Major Ingredients?
Ingredients constituting 55-60% or more of the formula weight.
What are the Minor Ingredients?
Ingredients that are used in the level of 5-10% of the formula weight are categorised.
What are the Micro Ingredients?
Ingredients are used at the micro-level, that is in parts per million (ppm) usually ranging from 0.1% or less than 5%.
Cake Making Tools: Wheat Flour Fractions
Hard wheat
- A high protein content wheat is called hard wheat. The yield of flour is also good.
- The dough formed has good elasticity, a strong gluten network, high water absorption capacity and excellent gas holding capacity.
- These reasons make hard wheat desirable for bread production.
Soft wheat
- A distinct characteristic of soft wheat is its low protein content.
- The dough formed has low water absorption capacity and low tolerance to mixing and fermentation.
- It is undesirable for bread but where a tender product is desirable such as for cakes, pastries, cookies, etc. soft wheat flour is required.
Role of Gluten
When the dough is allowed to rise, the leavening gases are formed and are expanded. These are trapped by the gluten network.
As the gases expand during heating, the gluten will continue to stretch until the heat of the oven coagulates the gluten. It is this process that is responsible for the spongy texture of baked products.
source: naturemate
How to Make Cake Using the Commercial Grades of Wheat Flour?
- Commercial grades of wheat flour are defined by how much pure endosperm is there.
- High endosperm flours are whiter in colour because they are relatively low in bran and germ, considered undesirable in baked products.
- Due to the high baking quality and low nutritional quality, these are considered high-quality flours.
- The traditional way for manufacturers to confirm the grade of flour is to measure its ash content which is highest in bran hence indicating the amount of bran in flour and therefore, of the flour’s commercial grade.
What is Patent Flour?
- This is the highest quality of all commercial grades of white flour as it consists of the innermost part of the endosperm and is essentially free of bran and germ.
- Of all the flour, patent flour is the lowest in ash content and is the whitest in colour.
- By combining the first few streams of flour from the milling process, patent flour is obtained.
- They are also graded depending on which streams of flour from the milling process are blended.
- An extra short or fancy patent is the highest quality patent flour.
Clear Flour
- This is the lowest quality of all commercial grades of flour as it consists of the outer part of the endosperm and contains germ and bran.
- The flour stream that remains after patent flour is the clear flour.
- High in bran, protein and ash content gives clear flour a slightly greyish colour.
- Relatively all clear flours are.
- The total protein in clear flour is higher as compared to patent flour and the gluten formed is also typically of lesser quality than that of patent flour.
Straight Flour
Straight flour is obtained by combining all usable streams of flour from the milling process which involves the milling of the entire endosperm. It contains bran and germ particles that are not easily separated from the endosperm.
What are the Types of Patent Wheat Flour?
Milled from the heart of the endosperm, patient flours are the most preferred choice of the bakers.
The differences among the various patient wheat flours are due to the type of wheat used in producing the flour and because of differences in milling processes or additives.
Pastry Flour
- This is ideal for cookies and many pastries that do not need rising and hence weak, extensible gluten development in the flour is required.
- Generally, soft red winter wheat which is low in protein is used for the milling of pastry flour.
- For this purpose, soft wheat flour with lower protein content is used.
How to Make Cake At Home Using Cake Flour
Source: live well bake often
- Cake flour is milled from soft wheat.
- A high starch content and a very low amount of protein (7-9%) make it unsuitable for bread making.
- Since it comes from the absolute heart of the abdomen, this short or fancy patent flour has a finer granulation and a whiter colour. Cake flour also has a good water absorption capacity.
- It is typically bleached with both chlorine and benzoyl peroxide, yielding a stark white colour and a distinctly changed flavour.
What is the Role of All Purpose Flour or Maida?
- It is often made from a blend of hard and soft wheat and contains 9.5-11.5% protein.
- All-purpose flour or maida comes bleached or unbleached and may contain added malted barley flour.
- It is mostly used in the foodservice industry like hotels and restaurants.
source: the spruce eats
Now that your question on how to make a cake and what flour to use is answered, are you ready to go big? Hunar Online baking classes have got your back.
Also Read : Know All About the Latest Baking Trends
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