Cupcakes And Substitutes

In my Food class, a math and science course for this term, our second unit revolves around cooking and other chemistry. The main focus was acid-base reactions. An acid-base reaction is when something of a low pH (power of hydrogen) which makes it acidic, mixes together with a basic/alkaline high pH substance, neutralizing each other. For the action project, we were to determine a substitute for baking powder, which contains a base, an acid, and corn starch which will delay the process of reaction. The substitutes chosen were egg whites, as a base, and lemon juice, for an acid. These two ingredients have opposite pH’s, with the egg white’s having 9 and lemon juice having a 2. The higher a pH is, the more alkaline the substance is, and the lower it is, means it’s more acidic. The pH scale also goes by increments of 1, ranging from 0 to 14, with a difference of ten times between each one. All that aside, I’d say there was a particular moment that I am more proud of. This instance was when DNR (another blogger of C2 labs) and I created frosting for the cupcakes; however rather than using powder sugar, we used the fine sugar grains instead. This made the frosting very, very sweet and quite grainy; some may say it was a sandy texture. For more details about this project, please read my lab report below.

The Controlled Bakery of Height

1. Introduction

In this second action project, we need to find a substitute for baking powder using 2 other ingredients. The two that my group, consisting of myself, GS, DP, and NVA, decided upon were lemon juice, with an acidic pH of 2, and egg whites, which had a basic measure of 9 on the pH scale. This would give out an acid-base reaction due to the contrasting pH measures. During the reaction, carbon dioxide is produced and the bubbles make the cupcakes rise. The main goal was to test whether or not we’d get the same reaction as baking powder; we measured the height of two groups of cupcakes, the control and the experimental.

2. Research Question

What ingredients give off an acid-base reaction to replace the leavening agents?

3. Hypothesis

If the leavening agent is replaced with egg whites and lemon juice, then the cupcakes will still rise, but probably not as high as the original control group cupcakes.

4. Materials

(for 6 cupcakes, excluding the leavening agents or substitute ingredients)

• Sugar (½ c)
• Butter (¼ c)
• Eggs (1 egg)
• Vanilla [extract] (1 tsp)
• Flour (¾ c)
• Milk (¼ c)
• {control group} Baking powder (⅞ tsp)
• {experimental group} Egg whites
• {experimental group} Lemon Juice

5. Procedure

For Control Group:

Follow the process shown on instructions, which read:

1. Gather materials
2. Preheat oven to 350º F
3. In a medium bowl
1. Cream together sugar and eggs
2. Beat eggs one at a time
3. Then stir in vanilla
4. Combine flour and baking powder, mix until smooth
5. Add milk
6. mix once again until light creamy texture arises
4. Pour batter into cupcake molds/holders
5. Bake for 20 minutes

For Experimental Group:

1. Gather materials
2. Preheat oven to 350º F
3. In a medium bowl
1. Cream together sugar and eggs
2. Beat eggs one at a time
3. Then stir in vanilla
4. Combine flour to batter, mix until smooth
5. Add milk
6. Mix once again until light creamy texture arises
7. Add (substitute ingredients) egg whites and lemon juice
4. Pour batter into cupcake molds/holders
5. Bake for 20 minutes

6. Data

Cupcakes	Amount of Lemon Juice (TSP)	Amount of Egg Whites (TSP)	Height of Cupcakes
1	1/8	0	3.9 cm
2	0	1/8	3.5 cm
3	1/32	3/32	3.5 cm
4	1/16	1/16	4 cm
5	1/64	7/64	3.1 cm
6	7/64	1/64	3 cm
Control Group	-	-	4.7 cm

7. Graph

This graph shows the height for each cupcake trial

8. Recipe in Metric

The following table is what I would like to submit to the magazine as my favorite cupcake from the bunch.

Ingredients	Amount in cups/tsp (or egg)	Amount in mL
Sugar	1/12 c	20mL
Butter	1/24 c	10mL
Eggs	1/6	-
Vanilla (extract)	1/6tsp	0.8333...mL
Flour	3/24c	30mL
Milk	1/24c	10mL
Lemon Juice	N/A	N/A
Egg Whites	1/8tsp	0.625mL

9. Conclusion

Overall, this testing was, in my opinion, a complete success. The cupcakes rose and my group was able to substitute the leavening agent, baking powder. As of the hypothesis, it was proven as well, stating that they would rise but lower than the control group, and the data proves this. Also, I’d submit the second cupcake because of how much sweeter it was than the rest, it was actually flavorful, unlike the rest. In the end, I think that because there was such a large difference between the 2 ingredients is why they reacted so well.