Physical and Sensory Properties of Maize Germ Oil Fortified Cakes

In this study oil was extracted from maize germ, refined and used in cake recipe for value-addition. Cakes were prepared from different blends of maize germ oil (MGO) and normal shortening; evaluated for physical and sensory attributes. The specific gravity of the MGO was 0.923 +/- 0.001, while the refractive index was 1.472 +/- 0.001 at room temperature. The iodine value, saponification value, acid value, peroxide value and free fatty acids of the MGO were recorded to be 113.67 +/- 1.53 g 100 g(-1), 192.67 +/- 2.08 mg KOH g(-1), 0.33 +/- 0.001 mg KOH g(-1), 1.69 +/- 0.03 meq kg(-1) and 0.033 +/- 0.01 g 100 g(-1), respectively. Cake volume and specific volume increased, whereas crumb hardness of cake slices was not significantly affected with the addition of MGO in the formulation. Hunter color "b" values of cake crumb increased significantly with MGO fortification, representing an increased yellowish tint of the crumb. The MGO also resulted in momentous increase in chroma and hue angle values. Sensory scores for overall quality increased with the MGO augmentation in cakes and the highest score (12.6 +/- 0.8) was assigned to treatment with 60% MGO that differed non-momentously from 80% and 100% MGO fortified cakes. Overall, cakes were successfully prepared with all levels of MGO fortification with high acceptability.