More than one ingredient supplier called angel food cake the Holy Grail of egg replacement. On a formula weight basis, standard angel food cake contains 41.5% egg white, with an equal amount of sugar and just 15% flour. In bakers percent, the egg white component comes to 275%.

“Angel food is the most difficult challenge because it’s hard to replace egg albumen, even half of it,” said Bill Gilbert, certified master baker and principal food technologist, Cargill, Plymouth, MN. “However, last year, during the egg white shortage, a Cargill research scientist demonstrated it could be done.”

Nicole Rees, business development manager, ingredient technologies, Glanbia Nutritionals, Fitchburg, WI, agreed and said, “You cannot achieve 100% substitution in that product, but in sheet cakes, 100% is reasonable, also muffins, cookies, brownies, pancakes and waffles.”

The same outcome with egg white replacement was noted by Terese O’Neill, director of sales, ingredients, Agropur Ingredients, La Crosse, WI. “Egg white replacement is something entirely different,” she said. This affects use of egg whites in fine-textured cakes, especially angel food, and meringues. “The technical experts note that if you work very hard, you can achieve partial replacement of whites in angel cake, but not 100%,” she observed.

Editor’s notes: For a slideshow of egg replacer ingredients, click here. The July 2015 issue of Baking & Snack carries full coverage of the egg situation and egg replacer ingredients.