ABSTRACT

Quality characteristics of cake produced from composite flour of bambara groundnut and wheat was evaluated. Cake was produced from different flour blends (95:5, 90:10 and 85:15) of wheat and bambara nut. Cake processed with 100% wheat flour served as the control. Functional properties of the flours and proximate composition, mineral content, microbial quality and sensory properties of the cake were evaluated using standard laboratory procedures. The data generated were statistically analysed by One Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) using Statistical Product of Service Solution (Version 22). The functional properties of the wheat and bambara nut composite flour ranged from 071 to 0.76 g/ml, 2.52 to 3.19 g/ml, 1.62 to 2.15 g/ml, 19.99 to 24.33 %, 46.66 to 54.96 %, 2.49 to 3.54 Sec, 54.50 to 60.00 °C and 1.65 to 1.85 g/ml for bulk density, oil absorption capacity, water absorption capacity, foam capacity, foam stability, wettability, gelatinization temperature and swelling index, respectively. The proximate composition of the cake samples ranged from 22.50 to 29.21 %, 13.10 to 18.11 %, 13.49 to 14.87 % fat, 2.24 to 2.88 %, 0.28 to 0.52 %, 41.14 to 44.50 % and 340.45 to 370.82 Kcal/100g for moisture content, crude protein, fat content, ash, crude fibre, carbohydrate and energy value, respectively. The mineral content of the cake ranged from 58.84 to 62.13 mg/100g, 64.54 to 67.27 mg/100g, 13.49 to 14.87 mg/100g, 241.87 to 249.78 mg/100g, 309.03 to 314.84 mg/100g and 2.44 to 2.73 mg/100g for calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, potassium and zinc, respectively. The results of microbial analysis showed that the total viable count of the cake samples ranged from 5.00x106 to 10.00x106 CFU/g. No total fungi, lactobacillus and staphylococcus count were detected in the cake samples. The result of sensory evaluation showed that the appearance (5.80 to 8.90), taste (5.50 to 7.85), aroma (5.40 to 7.60), texture (6.00 to 8.50) and general acceptability (5.50 to 8.20) varied with cake made from 100% wheat having the highest mean scores followed by cake supplemented with 5 % bambara nut flour.