The Function of Sugar in Cake Batter

Welcome to class #5  in a series of 7 “Cake Batter” classes. In this article we’ll look at another important ingredient in cake batter, sugar.

To learn detailed information about the composition and science of sugar as a baking ingredient, visit the Baking Ingredients – Sugar page. This class will focus specifically on sugar in pound cake batter.

In a successful cake the ingredients that strengthen the cake structure (flour and eggs) are balanced with the ingredients that weaken the cake structure (sugar and fat). To create a moist, sweet and tender cake that bakes up with a nice even crumb the four main ingredients have to work together.

For this class we’ll learn about one of the “cake tenderizers” in cake batter – sugar.

Excess sugar could weaken a cake structure so much that it collapses. A successful recipe balances adding enough sugar to tenderize and sweeten, but not so much to make the cake collapse.

• The cake made with 25% less sugar than normal was not sweet enough and was tough and dry. The cake with 25% more sugar had a very nice flavor, tender crumb and the texture was not compromised.
• Further increasing the amount of sugar to 50% above normal compromised the structure of the cake enough that it baked with a flattened top and the crumb had a slightly pasty mouth feel.
• Both the +25% and the +50% cakes had a noticeably thicker and sweeter crust than the control cake, and the crust was crackled. Because I added extra sugar to the recipe but did not add extra liquid, the sugar could not completely dissolve and the excess sugar rose to the surface and created the crust. I didn’t find the crust unpleasant but it was a noticeable difference.
• The cake made with honey had a very nice flavor, but the excess moisture in the honey compromised the structure too much and the cake partially collapsed, leaving a gummy layer along the bottom and top of the cake.

Using sugar subsitutes in cake batter

To coincide with my research regarding sugar in cake batter, I also tested a sugar substitute made from the Stevia plant. Stevia is 150x sweeter than Sucrose, or table sugar. I thought it would be helpful to see if Stevia can be used to replace sugar in a cake batter.

I baked a test cake using 8oz by weight of a granulated sugar substitute made from the Stevia plant. Because I knew that Stevia is much sweeter than sugar I didn’t expect the cake to taste good, but wanted to use the same amount as a comparison.

The cake made with the Stevia product was heavy, dense, hard and brittle with a gummy mouth feel. It was extremely sweet with a bitter, unpleasant aftertaste. The cake was inedible.

As I expected, Stevia products cannot be used 1 for 1 for sugar in a recipe. The product I used recommends using less than half the amount of Stevia by volume. Since sugar affects baked goods in more ways than just the flavor, reducing the amount of Stevia in the baked good may improve the sweetness level and aftertaste of the cake, but the texture would still be compromised.

For those who must use sugar substitutes in baking, recipes will have to be revised further than just swapping out the sugar with a sugar substitute for a good result.

Other cake batter classes:

Next up: Cake Batter Class #6 will explore the function of fat in a cake recipe.

• Reverse Creaming
• The function of flour in cake batter
• The function of eggs in cake batter
• The function of salt & baking powder in cake batter
• The Cake recipe formula

When we’re done experimenting with all the ingredients for this “cake batter” course, we’ll use all we’ve learned to create Pound Cake Perfection.