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10.7: Common Defects in Angel Cake and Sponge Cake Products and their Probable Causes

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    Common Defects in Egg Foam Products and their Probable Causes

    In General:

    Low volume

    Presence of small amount of fat

    Sugar added too soon or too rapidly

    Low quality eggs

    Slow beating rate

    Small eggs (if counted, not measured)

    Low volume (shrunken)

    Overbeating before sugar was added

    Sugar not well blended into meringue

    Soft Meringues

    Low volume and curdled look

    Overbeaten before sugar was added

    Overbeaten

    Leakage or weeping

    Undercoagulation caused by

    Underbeating

    Placing meringue on cold filling

    Short baking time at high temperature

    Underbaking or Delayed baking

    Low quality egg

    Beading

    Overcoagulation caused by

    Baking on hot filling

    (although this is recommended for food safety)

    Failure to dissolve sugar

    Overbeating

    Dull or dry surface

    Overbeating

    Low volume, very fine cells, slick shiny surface, will not hold peaks

    Sugar added too soon

    Low volume, shrinkage, shiny surface

    Underbeaten after sugar is added

    Shrinkage

    Not sealing meringue to crust

    Hard Meringues or Meringue Shells

    Sticky

    Underbaking

    Underbeating

    Hard, tough

    Overbaking

    Brown with soft or sticky center

    Too high oven temperature

    Angel Cakes

    Low volume

    Low quality eggs

    Low volume, tough, gummy, thick cell walls

    Underbeating

    Excessive folding or mixing

    Low volume with streaks

    Too much sugar or flour added at once

    Underfolded

    Low volume, coarse texture

    Not enough folding of flour and sugar

    Low volume, yellow color, coarse texture, thick cell walls, tough

    Not enough cream of tartar

    Low volume, fine grain, broken (collapsed) cells

    Overbeating

    Low volume, tough, compact

    Overfolding

    Fallen, sugary, crystalline, dry

    Excess sugar

    Shrunken (Slight shrinkage from highest volume in oven is expected.)

    Pan not free from fat

    Underbaking

    Extreme overbaking

    Failure to invert pan

    Extreme overmixing

    Coarse cells, uneven texture, but tender

    Underfolded

    Top crust separates

    Excessive overbaking

    Dry and tough

    Overbaking

    Cake falls from pan

    Underbaking

    Traces of fat in pan

    Soggy, excessively moist cake

    See causes of low volume

    Underbaked

    Tough

    Low quality eggs

    Overfolding

    (often because of overbeating egg whites)

    Insufficient sugar

    Holes and tunnels

    Insufficient folding

    Batter not pushed against sides and bottom of pan

    Overbeating egg whites

    Chiffon and Sponge Cakes

    Low volume

    Overbeating egg whites

    Overfolding

    Low volume and thick cell walls, layering

    Underbeating whites or yolks

    Underfolding

    Tough

    Not enough liquid

    Overfolding

    Soggy

    Too much liquid


    10.7: Common Defects in Angel Cake and Sponge Cake Products and their Probable Causes is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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