e Effect of Pumpkin Powder on the Quality Properties of Gluten-Free Sponge Cake Prepared with Corn Flour

Those who suffer from Celiac disease, a type of immunological disease, are not able to use and to tolerate gluten. The only way for them is to consume gluten free foods. The aim of this research was to find out some of the qualitative and textural properties of gluten-free sponge cake prepared with corn flour, fortified with pumpkin powder in four levels (0, 5, 10 and 15%). The results of this research showed that increasing of pumpkin powder in formulation of gluten-free cake, caused decrease in fat content about 18.5%, volume of cake about 51 % and baking loss about 13.2 %, but the moisture content, amount of ashes, apparent density and firmness of texture of product increased about 28.5, 42, 60 and 29% respectively (P<0.05). Results also indicated that L* and b* indexes decreased and a* index of cake shell increased with increasing of pumpkin powder (P<0.05). The results of sensory properties evaluation showed that samples containing 10% pumpkin powder received the highest score of sensory evaluation. According to the results obtained from this research, adding 23 % of corn flour and 10% of pumpkin powder to produce gluten-free sponge cake with desirable nutritional and sensory properties for patients with celiac disease, can be recommended.