Effects of Creaming Method and Flour Formulation on Acceptability and Proximate Characteristics of Cake from Corn, Wheat and Soya Bean Composite Flour

The study tested the possibility of incorporating corn and soya bean flours to partially substitute wheat flour in the production of cakes. A 3x2 factorial design was followed using three different composite flour formulations (A, B= 80 soya bean: 15 corn: 5 wheat; C, D= 15 soya bean: 80 corn: 5 wheat; E, F= 50 soya bean: 20 corn: 30 wheat) at two levels of creaming (manual and machine creaming). Samples A, C and E were manually creamed whereas B, D and F were subjected to machine creaming. Composite flours were used to bake cakes, with 100% wheat flour cake serving as control. A total of seven samples were produced, coded and tested for acceptability using a nine-point hedonic scale in affective sensory test. Correlation analysis was performed to ascertain the influence of individual flour components on the performance of cake samples. Proximate analysis was also conducted on best overall scored sample and control sample (G). Results showed that all cake samples compared well sensorially with average score of 7.23 for overall acceptability against G (7.33), inferring they were all liked moderately by the sensory panel. Correlation coefficients showed that sensory scores were lower for increasing amounts of soya bean (-0.4656) and corn (-0.3637) but higher for increasing amounts of wheat (0.8680). For proximate and energy contents, sample F had significantly higher values for moisture (24.71) and protein (18.50) than G (19.01 and 8.19 respectively) (P<0.05). The control sample (G) also recorded higher values for fibre (26.23) and lipids (42.77) than sample F (23.92, 30.41 respectively) (P<0.05). Energy values of samples revealed a higher value for G (520.61 kcal) than F (443.37 kcal). Creaming methods had no significant influence on the sensory performance of cakes. Substituting wheat flour with soya bean and corn flour was recommended but more work needs to be done to improve on associated heaviness and rough texture of cakes produced. Keywords: Cakes, Sensory, Flour, Corn, Soya bean