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| I have heard a lot of talk about specific gravity. Could you briefly explain what it is? L.G., Green bay, Wisc. | to Top |
: Specific gravity is a measurement of air incorporated into a cake batter during mixing. This air, along with baking powder gasses released during baking, determines the cake texture and volume. Cake mixes are formulated to work best when mixed in such a way to incorporate the proper amount of air to give the proper specific gravity. Specific gravity is figured by dividing the weight of an amount of cake batter by the weight of the same amount of water. Take any container that can be filled to an exact amount, and follow these steps:
| 1 | Weigh the container. |
| 2 | Fill the container with water. |
| 3 | Weigh the container and water. |
| 4 | Substract the container weight. |
| 5 | Fill the container with batter. |
| 6 | Weigh the container and batter. |
| 7 | Substract the container weight. |
| 8 | Divide the batter weight by the water weight to determine specific gravity. |
Tenbergen, Klaus. 2003. The Workbench. Modern Baking 17: 52.
Webber Comment: The above is an appropriate procedure. Actually, if one wanted to get crude one can assume 1 ml = 1 gm of water pretty much and go from there if you know the volume of your container. It is useful for other items where incorporation of air is important to ultimate quality. For example, various foams, various whipped products, sponges, etc.
Updated: Saturday, December 29, 2007.
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