Machining metal and baking cakes

Those familiar with my posts and hobbies will know I love good food that tastes fantastic while not necessarily expensive. In the process of preparing dishes, I am always amazed how my education in science helps me understand so many things. The opposite is also true, cooking can help me understand and explain scientific concepts very easily since everyone needs to eat, and eventually cook at some point in their lives. So let us bake a cake together, a fluffy génoise, to see how material selection can impact your process and product.

The ingredients are simple: 4 eggs, 125g flower, 125g sugar, half a teaspoon of baking powder.

Baking a cake for your loved ones or to feed the mass will impact the emotion you will put into your work. The quality of the ingredients you will select might also not be the same. You might choose cheap quality ingredients for high capacity operations; or high quality, fresh, local, organic ingredients for special occasions.

4 quail eggs are not as much as 1 ostrich egg. Free running versus battery chickens yields different yolks, in colour and taste. Supplier, quantity and grade matter in the cake as much as in your industrial process.

Wheat, rice, maize, buckwheat or rye flours are all very good in taste. Yet their aptitude to leaven is different as is their colour.

Baking powder, yeast or leaven will change the taste and rising time of your cake. Then comes the baking part: time and temperature are crucial parameters. Natural convection needs a little more time than forced air circulation.

By now you must have got the idea of my point.

Chemistry, physics and mathematics are the same everywhere in the world. So baking a cake is no different than transforming materials into complex products. The need to have a global picture of your process is mandatory to extract the most out of your materials.

The materials you buy also have their limitations. Some materials are more versatile whereas others are application specific. Understanding the material and process relation will make it possible for you to bake your best cake.

Need to get a good picture of your process, reduce waste, improve your material yields and increase margins? Get in touch with me and let's see how I can help you achieve YOUR goals.

#materials #process #cooking #selection #optimisation #supply #chain