10.3 Common Defects in Angel Cake and Sponge Cake 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

License

Icon for the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

Basic Scientific Food Preparation Lab Manual Copyright © 2023 by Iowa State University Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.