TEP Talk: Cakes and Chemistry

With Tuesday, November 10 being National Vanilla Cupcake Day, we wanted to sink our teeth into the science behind baking. So with coffee and mini vanilla cupcakes in tow, we headed over to Technology Enterprise Park (TEP) – where the majority of community members are professional chemists and scientists (and some even claiming professional bakers) – to test their knowledge with some true or false questions. 

Not surprisingly, there was a lot of interest in this topic, as TEP community members are well-known sweet tooths, in addition to their career prowess. People from Kemira, Abbott, and VERO Biotech all dropped by during lunch to dig into the following statements to uncover fact from fiction:

1. Baking is a science as much as it is an art. 

   TRUE: It’s one of the first lessons in culinary school. Any slight changes in a recipe (too much baking powder, over-mixing a batter) can make the difference between a moist cupcake and a hockey puck. In fact, a lot of food science students go through pre-med because it’s heavy in the basic sciences.

2. It doesn’t matter what order you mix dry ingredients.

   FALSE: It’s important to mix dry ingredients in the right order, as each dry element is competing for water. If you put in the wrong ingredients first, the batter will tend to clump because then they don’t have enough water.

3. There’s no such thing as mixing too much.

   FALSE: When gluten aligns, the proteins align with strands. If you keep mixing, it will be too runny, and it won’t hold. You’ve disrupted the networks that are formed.

4. Putting baked goods in the fridge keeps it fresher for longer. 

   FALSE: Lower temperatures will cause the cake to go stale quicker.

And it’s no wonder that nearly half of those that participated (46%) got all four answers correct! Additionally, 27 percent correctly answered three out of four, and another 27 percent correctly answered two out of four. None of the attendees missed all four or only got one correct answer, which is reassuring, considering their professional backgrounds!

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DID YOU KNOW?

Cupcakes rise due to a chemical reaction. The self-raising flour contains a solid acid and base. When the mixture is wet, the acid and base react to form carbon dioxide gas. The gas bubbles then cause cupcakes to rise.

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Were you aware how much science went into baking? Did you get all four answers correct? Let us know in the comments below.