Sensory Evaluation on Flavor, Volume, and Texture of Substituting Amaranth Flour for Wheat Flour in Red Velvet Cupcakes

Celiac disease is becoming more prevalent in today’s society and celiac patients are looking for more gluten-free options to replace wheat-made counterparts. Amaranth is a gluten-free grain that has been introduced in many products for its nutritional benefits, such as improvements in calcium, iron and zinc intake. The purpose of this study was to determine if red velvet cupcakes made with amaranth flour could provide comparable taste, volume and texture to a red velvet cupcake made with wheat flour. Both cupcakes underwent a seed-displacement test, which determined that the amaranth cupcake was comparable in volume. When each sample was presented to a group of five panelists, several of the panelists claimed the sample made with amaranth flour produced a “nutty, bitter cupcake” that one panelist described as tasting like “potting soil.” In a favorable choice question, two of the five panelists found the amaranth cupcake more favorable than the one made with wheat flour. The hypothesis was not supported in this study, and further research could be done substituting the amaranth flour in a way that could mask the nutty flavor, such as replacing wheat flour in banana nut bread