Modernizing Your Cake Production

The global cake market, valued at a staggering USD 67.34 billion in 2024, is projected to rise steadily in the coming years. However, with this growth comes heightened competition and rising consumer expectations. Today’s cake lovers are seeking exceptional texture, cleaner labels, and extended freshness. Meanwhile, bakers face the dual pressures of optimizing production for consistency and efficiency. This presents a unique technical challenge: balancing beloved traditions with cutting-edge food science. Join us as we delve into insights from our recent Baking Cake BAKERview.

What Goes into a Delicious Cake

To modernize your cake production successfully, it’s essential to understand the intricate roles each ingredient plays. Cakes are complex chemical systems. Innovating, troubleshooting, and optimizing all start with a clear picture of how each component affects the final product.

• Flour & Structure: Flour forms the foundation. Low-protein, chlorinated soft wheat flour is traditionally used in cakes because it minimizes gluten development, ensuring a tender, delicate crumb. Chlorination also improves flour starch gelatinization, which is critical for achieving proper volume and extending shelf life. While some bakers are moving away from chlorinated flour for clean-label reasons, understanding its structural role is essential when selecting alternatives.
• Sugar & Fat: Sugar and fat do far more than sweeten and soften. Sugar tenderizes the crumb by competing with gluten and starch for water, thereby inhibiting gluten formation. It also retains moisture, delays starch retrogradation, and contributes to the Maillard reaction. Sugar is crucial for aeration during the creaming step, as it helps incorporate air into the fat to achieve proper cake volume. Fat, whether in the form of butter, oil, or shortening, coats the flour proteins, further inhibiting gluten formation. It adds richness to mouthfeel, aids in moisture retention, and supports shelf stability.
• Eggs: Eggs are one of the most critical multi-functional ingredients in cake systems. They provide structure through coagulated proteins, contribute moisture, and assist with leavening in foam-style cakes. The emulsifying properties of egg yolks help stabilize the air-water interface in batters, contributing to finer crumb structure and better volume. Eggs also aid in browning through their role in the Maillard reaction.
• Emulsifiers: Emulsifiers are the hidden heroes of consistent cake production. Common emulsifiers, such as propylene glycol monoesters (PGME), polyglycerol esters (PGE), and mono- and diglycerides, stabilize the fat-water interface in the batter. They ensure uniform dispersion of fat, improve air incorporation, and help create a finer, more consistent crumb. For bakers moving toward clean-label formulations, options like alpha-cyclodextrins or lecithin provide similar functionality while meeting clean-label requirements. Emulsifiers also help extend softness and improve overall shelf life.
• Shelf Life Extension: Shelf life remains a critical factor, especially in large-scale production. Traditional preservatives like potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate are effective at inhibiting mold and yeast growth. However, with the growing demand for clean-label solutions, bakers are exploring fermented sugars, cultured wheat, and natural extracts. These clean-label antimicrobials can help extend shelf life while aligning with modern consumer preferences.

A Note on Egg Replacement

It’s vital to note that market trends, including cost pressures and rising demand for allergen-free or plant-based cakes, have driven interest in egg-reduction solutions. This is where innovative ingredient solutions from companies like Arla Foods Ingredients come into play. Their egg-reduction proteins excel in providing stability and structure by mimicking the water-binding and emulsifying properties of eggs.

Additionally, these solutions offer cost savings, especially when egg prices fluctuate, and support clean-label goals by reducing reliance on animal-derived ingredients. Whether you’re developing a cleaner label product or responding to market demand for egg-free options, integrating Arla’s whey-based egg-reduction systems is a smart, future-ready approach. By strategically utilizing egg-reduction solutions, bakers can maintain high-quality cakes while reducing costs, streamlining production, and meeting various dietary and labeling requirements.

Mastering Chemical Leavening

Chemical leavening is the engine that powers a cake’s lift, volume, and texture. The neutralizing value (NV) of your leavening acids is the key metric. It dictates the rate and amount of carbon dioxide release during mixing, baking, and final oven spring. If your leavening system is off-balance, the consequences can be dramatic:

• Tunneling & Crowned Tops: These defects often result from leavening systems that produce too much gas late in the baking process. An incompatible acid with a delayed reaction profile can cause excessive oven spring, leading to large tunnels, peaked centers, and uneven tops.
• Dense, Heavy Crumb: Insufficient or poorly timed gas production leads to a dense, under-aerated crumb. This commonly occurs when the leavening acid reacts too quickly during mixing, leaving insufficient gas for the oven stage.
• Dry or Crumbly Texture: Incorrect acid-to-baking soda ratios can leave excess unneutralized reactants, leading to off-flavors, excess alkalinity, and a dry, crumbly texture.

Want to learn more? Watch the full BAKERview:

Level Up Your Formulation

This is where partnering with a specialized ingredient solutions provider, like Innophos, becomes a strategic advantage. Modern cake production demands more than just commodity leavening agents. Tailored leavening systems can solve the most pressing challenges while meeting evolving consumer demands.

• Precision Leavening Systems: Innophos offers a wide array of leavening acids, including sodium aluminum phosphate (SALP), sodium acid pyrophosphate (SAPP), monocalcium phosphate (MCP), and glucono-delta-lactone (GDL). Each has a unique neutralizing value and reaction profile. By carefully selecting and blending these acids, bakers can precisely control the timing of CO₂ release. This eliminates tunneling, ensures consistent volume, and creates a uniform, tender crumb structure batch after batch.
• Sodium Reduction: With growing concerns about sodium intake, many bakers are exploring sodium reduction. Innophos offers specialty phosphates that allow for significant sodium reduction by optimizing leavening efficiency. This enables bakers to reduce overall sodium content while maintaining the expected rise, volume, and texture consumers expect.
• Clean Label & Aluminum-Free: Meeting the growing demand for clean-label products requires more than just removing artificial preservatives. Innophos’s aluminum-free, non-GMO, and corn-derived leavening acids help bakers transition to simpler ingredient decks without sacrificing quality or consistency. These solutions offer the technical guidance necessary for seamless integration.
• High-Protein Adaptation: The protein fortification trend is gaining traction, but it brings challenges. Increasing protein levels in cake formulations can lead to toughness, dryness, and decreased volume. Innophos offers functional phosphate blends that mitigate protein-flour interaction, allowing bakers to maintain a soft, desirable crumb even in high-protein cake applications. This is crucial for developing high-protein cakes that meet nutritional trends while still delivering on indulgent texture.

The Icing on the Cake

In a market growing at a steady rate, standing still is not an option. Mastering your base formulations and leveraging advanced ingredient technologies will help foment your bakery’s growth. Eliminating staling, perfecting cell structure, and extending shelf life all come down to ingredient precision. The difference between a good cake and an exceptional one lies in the details of your formulation.

If you are looking to refine your process and truly elevate your cakes, we’ve got the technical resource for you! The Baking Cake Pocket Guide offers an in-depth look at cake production, formulation adjustments, and solutions to common challenges like wrinkled tops, tunneling, or dryness. Let’s ensure your next creation gets the attention it deserves!

Download the Pocket Guide

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