Wednesday 9 June 2010

The Science of Cake

Apart from the obvious joy of eating, I've always put my love of cooking down to two things - my fascination with science and my interest in art. Food, of course, is a magical combination of the two. You need the science to combine flavours, help yeast do it's thing or make your cake rise. But then the end result is often as much of a joy to the eye as to the stomach (have a look at the picture at the top of the article - a thing of beauty, no?).


Cake is the ultimate example of this combination. I've always been fascinated by the wonderful process by which your tin of golden goo is miraculously transformed into a light springy sponge (ok, well most of the time anyway)...so I was particularly interested when I came across the article below on The Guardian's Science Blog. This isn't the usual sort of thing I post on my blog but I thought it was worth sharing. It's a fascinating insight into what goes on behind your oven door. I defy you to read it and not want to bake something immediately...