Study of sponge cake batter baking process. Part I: Experimental data

Experimental data concerning heat and mass transfer phenomena during the ba king process of a sponge cake batter are presented, namely the surface and internal temperatures profiles, the surface and mean water contents and the cake expansion curves, for different process temperatures and batter thick nesses. The product textural evolution during the process was also investig ated by photography and image analysis. By means of these data, two baking periods and the corresponding main transfer mechanisms were described, name ly the "heating up" period and "crust and crumb" period, delimited by the f ormation of a dry crust at the batter heated surface. During the heating up period, water migrated from the core to the surface by diffusion in liquid phase and heat was transferred from the surface to the core by conduction and by water vapor evaporation, diffusion and condensation. During the crus t and crumb period, the main resistances for heat and mass transfer are loc ated in the dry crust where heat was transferred by conduction and water va por migrated by convection under a gradient of total gaseous phase pressure . (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.