Additives in Cake

Additives in cake. With the arrival of additives for cake almost everyone can now make cake, but what do they do? Emulsifiers help to make that air is stabilised, the structure is fine and that retrogradation (simply said the product is getting old and dry) is being delayed.

 Leavening agents help us to speed up the baking process (as time is money) and help us to overcome the fact that we don’t have ideal circumstances or ingredients to they help us to get products with more volume and in several industrial processes release of the steel belt or baking tin is facilitated by it. 

The use of hydrocolloids or stabilisers are used to create more tolerance: product can become more sugar rich, but cakes also don’t collapse as quick as they do without. These stabilisers are often multifunctional as they can also aid in shelf life, moisture retention and sometimes they are complementary to each other. 

Preservatives are intended to prolongue a mould-free shelf life and they often require some acidity regulators to make sure that the preservatives have a function: Basic cakes would have a pH around 7, due to the use of leavening agents very often slightly below 7 and preservatives (depending on the kind you use) are working better in a more acidic environment. How much can be added and which kind is highly depending on cultural differences as per country/ region taste is different. 

One other commonly used additive are humectants: products that ‘bind’ moisture in such a way that the cake seems moist and in the same time they facilitate a longer shelf life as well.

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