The use of carob flour and stevia as sugar substitutes in sponge cake: Optimization for reducing sugar and wheat flour in cake formulation

Abstract

Cakes are widely consumed food products worldwide and draw attention with their high caloric value, high fat, and wheat four content. They have very high consumption rate in the gastronomy world. In this study, carob flour and stevia (Rebaudioside A) were used as sugar (one of the main ingredients in the production of cakes) substitutes. Process variables were sugar (0–25%), stevia concentration (0–2%) and carob flour concentrations (0–30%) in constant amount of wheat flour. Using these variables, 20 different cakes were produced from experimental design. The optimum cake formulation had the response values of 1475, 0.933, 0.439, 648, 605 and 0.145, respectively for hardness, springiness, cohesiveness, gumminess, chewiness and resilience. The volume was 78.54 cm3. Both taste and general evaluation values were determined as 4.9. Also, maximum taste and general evaluation values were set parameters of sensory analysis. The optimum cake had 12.55% sugar, 2% stevia concentration and 15.38% carob flour in the formulation. These results showed that it could be possible to reduce sugar in the top cake without significantly changing the physicochemical properties.