A review of egg replacement in cake production: Effects on batter and cake properties

In recent years, there is a growing demand for and interest in egg replacement, due mainly to health problems (phenylketonuria, egg allergy) or health-related concerns (cholesterol, avian influenza), dietary preferences (vegan, vegetarian), and/or religious beliefs of consumers; and also to issues concerning sustainable food supply and economic factors for producers. In this regard, the food industry is searching for egg alternatives to produce partially or totally egg-replaced, in other words, eggless goods. Therefore, recent studies have focused on using egg replacers obtained from different sources in bakery products, particularly in cake formulations.Several research studies have obtained promising results, even though egg proteins play a crucial role in cake quality, and hence, replacing eggs is a significant challenge. In particular, whey and soy-based proteins are the most preferred egg replacers. Their utilization, in combination with some other food additives, such as emulsifiers and/or hydrocolloids, can imitate egg properties. Furthermore, the cooking water of pulses (called “aquafaba”), especially chickpea aquafaba has been shown to have great potential for egg replacement. Thus, using such egg replacers in cake production could represent a practical, sustainable, clean label, and cost-effective alternative; they are also easy to store and have long shelf-life, compared to fresh eggs.This review provides information about the reasons for egg replacement, highlights the most commonly used egg replacers in cake production, and describes their effects on some batter properties (specific gravity, viscosity, textural properties, rheological properties, and bubble size distribution) and cake quality parameters (moisture content, baking loss, specific volume, external properties, color, texture, crumb structure, and sensory properties).