12/09/2024
FLAVOUR
Flavour is the distinctive taste of a food or drink.
Flavours are very essential and make your cakes or drink smell nice and good. Some clients will tell you that they don't like the taste of your cake or drink and some can give you kudos to your work that is waooh!
Flavours give the baked goods a unique taste that makes it very alluring. These flavours comes mostly in bottles and in variety of brands. There are various kinds of flavours like vanilla, strawberry, condensed milk, butterscotch, banana, chocolate, mint, exotic fruit etc
We have different types of flavours
1. Extracts
2. Essence
EXTRACTS
Extracts are natural flavour. It is a concentrated flavourings that comes from different food and plants diluted with alcohol. Extracts can be got from many items like spices, nut, herbs, chocolate, vanilla etc. these items are put into alcohol.
Extract is much stronger, richer flavour, is a natural product made by soaking pods in a mixture of ethyl alcohol and water.
E.g Mekang flavours, Payless flavours etc. This solution is then referred to an extract. For example vanilla extract.
ESSENCE
Essence is an artifical flavour. It is commercially manufactured by chemicals and they are distilled with steam from fruits, spices and plants. E.g Foster clark, Essence Citron, Rayners e.t.c
The extract has a stronger flavour than the essence. If you require one tablespoon of extract, replace it with two tablespoons of the essence. If the recipe calls for essence and you'd rather use extract you may like to use a little less.
Most bakers use flavours according to their recipes and some combine different flavours to give
cakes a unique taste which gives it their signature taste.
For instance, we can combine some flavours together for cakes, except lime flavour because of it high / harsh taste.
(COMBINATION OF FLAVOURS)
Types of flavour that goes together
*Vanilla + butterscotch
*Vanilla + condensed milk
*Vanilla + evaporated milk
*Vanilla + banana
*Strawberry + condensed milk
* Strawberry + butterscotch
*Butterscotch + condensed milk
*Banana + condensed milk
*Vanilla + lemon
*Condensed milk+ banana
*Vanilla+ butterscotch+ chocolate
*Vanilla + milk fantasy+ butterscotch
*Vanilla + milk emulsion
*Vanilla +strawberry for Red velvet
*Chocolate + cofee for chocolate
*Vanilla + milk zest
*Coconut+ banana+ Vanilla
*Coconut + Banana
* Coconut + Butterscotch
* Lemon + Almond
Some recipes call for extract while others ask for essence. But most time we just use what we have here in Nigeria.
These two flavours are different.
Also a cake can get its flavour from the different ingredients that are used to make it. These include butter, margarine, dried fruit, chocolate, coffee etc.
Powdered flavour
This is also an artificial flavour powdered form. This powdered flavour is popular in Nigeria. They do not really produce intense flavour. I'm not really a fan of this kind of flavour at all.
Alcohol and liqueur
These are often used in cakes to enhance the flavour in cakes like fruit cake etc.
They also used to soak dried fruits. Alcohol like brandy, rum, vodka etc can be used.
Most of the alcohol used in baking actually evaporates so don't be scared that your customer will be drunk. They also aid in enhancing the taste of a cake or whatever is been baked.
Citrus flavour
As the name implies, these are flavour that are got from citrus fruits like oranges, lime, lemon etc. to get the flavour you could either use the peel or the outer part called the zest.
Zest is best got when grated on the finest holes of your grater. It does not have to be cooked first . Using it that way you keep all of the flavour from the natural oils in your baking.
Lemon zest has an intense lemon/citrus flavor with very little bitterness. The bitterness is primarily found in the white part of the lemon. So when grating the lemon be careful not to grate into the white surface immediately after the zest.
Zest of citrus can be used in fruit cakes, sponge cakes , pound cakes etc.
Coffee
Coffee can be used as a flavour. We all know the rich aroma that coffee can produce. It's flavour is great in tiramisu cake, chocolate cake, red velvet cake etc. To use coffee, it has to be brewed. Sometimes the recipe may call for a particular brand but as usual I always use whatever I have and it comes out nice.
Other things that be used for flavour are nuts like almond, peanut, coconut etc. and fresh fruits. Depending on what kind of cake you want to make.
So let's learn to choose our flavour wisely and appropriately .
