THE SCIENCE OF BAKING (CAKE)- Concluding Part

BAKING SODA/POWDER
These are classified as leavening agents. They are also very important ingredients in cake making as these serve as rising agents.
Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate and it begins to act immediately upon mixing the ingredients, so recipes that call for baking soda needs to be baked immediately as failure to do this will result in a flat cake.
Baking powder comprises of sodium bicarbonate, the acidifying agent, and also a drying agent (usually starch e-g corn-starch). It is readily available as single-acting baking powder  and double-acting baking powder.  The single-acting powders are activated by moisture, so recipes which include this product must be baked immediately after mixing. Double-acting powders on the other hand  react in two phases and can stand for a while before baking. In double-acting powders, gases are released at room temperature when the powder is added to the cake mixture, but most of the gas is released after the temperature of the cake increases in the oven.
  Baking soda is basic and it produces a bitter taste unless counteracted by the acidity of another ingredient e.g buttermilk. Baking powder on the other hand contains both an acid and a base and has an overall neutral effect in terms of taste.
I personally love my cake high up and well rounded at the top. It gives me such great high when my cakes turn out  this way. My sisters love this as well as it allows them as much cake crumbs to munch on when carving.

The mechanism by which these agent work is that they release carbon-dioxide when whipped with the butter thereby giving the cake the puff needed.
Double acting baking powder gives twice the carbon-dioxide during baking. But one has to be careful at the level to which they are added and this is where precision come to play once more as adding too much may result in a tear at the top or cracks thereby disfiguring the cake (I have been a victim).
Knowing the right ratio to flour would help to not under-do or overdo it. A teaspoon of baking powder or just one-quarter of baking soda is enough to leaven one cup of flour or just follow the cake recipe.


SALT
    Some cake recipes requires a pinch of salt in them. In cakes, the salt helps to balance out how much sweetness you have and it enhances other flavors while baking.













CHOCOLATES AND COCOA

      Cocoa  is a purer form of chocolate.  Chocolate comprises of two main components, cocoa solids and cocoa butter. The Cocoa solids gives the chocolate its flavor while the cocoa butter gives it its texture. Cocoa powder contains more of cocoa solids than cocoa butter.

 Issue 89 by Nicole Rees from Fine cooking helped me understand that the success of recipes that calls for either cocoa or chocolate depends on the batter having a specific pH. If you like one more than the other, you can substitute.
Choosing your options for your cake can depend on the other fats present in the cake.  Cakes made with cocoa differs from those made with chocolate in texture and flavor.
 Cakes made with Cocoa powder and oil are tender and intensely flavoured.
Chocolate cakes made with chocolate are temperature-sensitive. On tasting a chocolate cake when cool , you will find out that its dry and crumbly. Therefore cakes made with chocolates should be served at room temperatures as this allows for the release of flavour. 
There are two types of cocoa powder, Dutch-processed and Natural. The dutch-processed is less bitter than the natural cocoa. It also infuses a full rich flavour and dark colour. The dutch-processed cocoa is the major cocoa used by many bakers all over.

CONCLUSION
 A cake structure is created mainly from the combination of all these basic ingredients from the flour, to egg and/or milk. That lighter, melt-in-your-mouth texture you get occurs as a result of lots of air and tiny air pockets incorporated into the cake through mixing, beating and heating during the cake making process.
This is due to the eggs and leaveners added to the cake. The sugar and fat helps to tenderize the cake and also inhibit gluten formation and egg coagulation. But a slight imbalance can weaken the cake structure.
Too much sugar and butter mixture can make the cake collapse as it weighs down the cake structure and too much flour and too many eggs can result in a tough and/or dry cake.
Therefore, precision is the bane of cake making but also where this art has been mastered, improvisation and alterations can come to play.
Conclusively, cake baking is a science as it boils down to being extremely precise with measurements, temperatures and ingredients.


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