Baking & Snack - April 2022 - 48

SHORTENING
and the application will dictate their solid fat indexes. "
Those emulsifiers have enabled food scientists to develop
cake batter formulations using fluid shortenings
that provide significant convenience in storage and take
advantage of automated accuracy.
" In recent years, advances in emulsifier research have
the pliability and creaming
ability of the shortening. "
Emulsifiers can add nuance.
Bakers must
consider the
destination of
their cakes.
Fresh or frozen
will have an
impact on
shortening
functionality.
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" Bakers can choose to add different types of fat to manipulate
the solid fat index of a plastic shortening, " Mr.
Spelger said. " Bakers can add additional emulsifiers to
achieve optimal batter specific gravity and improve the
grain and texture of finished cakes. "
Emulsifiers are nonnegotiable if bakers are looking
to use a pumpable shortening or even a more fluid cake
shortening. It's the emulsifiers that enable liquid shortenings
to provide the functionality cake batters need.
" Modern fluid cake shortenings contain selected
blends of emulsifiers that greatly improve their moisture-carrying
capacity and also contribute to their dispersibility, "
Mr. Daniels said. " This accounts for the
shortening's ability to produce a uniform dispersion of
minute fat particles that then serve as the foci of the air
cells that are ultimately responsible for the grains and
texture in the baked cake. "
EMULSIFIERS ARE
NONNEGOTIABLE IF BAKERS ARE
LOOKING TO USE A PUMPABLE
SHORTENING OR EVEN A MORE
FLUID CAKE SHORTENING.
Bakers may want
to move away from traditional
cubed shortening to a fluid or pumpable one for a few
different reasons. These more fluid shortenings eliminate
the need for operators to scale cubed shortening,
and they also help achieve greater accuracy.
" Fluid shortening can be measured and pumped
through automated equipment
into
mixing
vessels
versus manually scaling and transferring a solid
shortening, " Mr. Spelger explained. " A fluid shortening
needs a robust emulsifier blend to perform optimally
in a batter or icing system. Fluid shortenings
48 Baking & Snack April 2022 / www.bakingbusiness.com
enabled the production of cake shortening with very
little dependence on structure or solid fat content or
the triglyceride portion, " Dr. Srivastava said. " A typical
formulation is comprised of a hard fat and an emulsifier
and is processed through slow cooling of the melted
fat accompanied by slow agitation. The product formed
retains its fluid state for extended periods. "
In a cake application, however, there are two components:
the cake and the icing. While both applications
rely on aeration, the finished product is very different
and the same shortening might not work in both.
Easing icing issues
Icings rely heavily on their shortenings and the air incorporated
in the mixing bowl for their structure, texture
and mouthfeel. The shortening will determine whether
an icing is creamy, light and fluffy or gritty and hard.
Using the proper shortening will pay dividends even in
process, storage and display.
" Without the right shortening, bakers won't be able to
hold the right amount of water and sugar or aerate the
icing properly, " Mr. Flider said. " If you need to freeze the
icing, you don't want it to break or have the sugar come
out. You don't want the color to start to run. "
The decision-making process on the type of fat and
emulsifier starts with knowing the end goals for the
product. This includes things like nutrition, branding,
desired eating characteristics and the retail channel the
finished product will go through. While nutritional considerations
often look at the level of saturated fat, this
type of fat is critical for providing the solids needed
to achieve the right eating qualities in an icing. This is
the reason why liquid oils on their own are not the best
choice for this application. Retail channel type is also a
key consideration.
" Products that are prepared in store and consumed
immediately don't require the same temperature tolerance
and robustness as products that are manufactured,
frozen, stored and shipped to a destination where they
finally get prepared for consumption, " Dr. Satumba said.
At the end of the day, cake formulating relies on the
shortening and emulsifiers to successfully cream and
aerate the batters and icings that make them so delicious.
Knowing the finished product's target - texture and
crumb structure, nutritional profile, processing needs -
can help bakers work backwards with suppliers to find
the custom shortening solution for their products.
*
043_BS_Apr22_Oils.indd 48
4/7/2022 9:24:59 AM
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Baking & Snack - April 2022

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