General Mills, Inc.

Glenn J Van Hulle

Jon R Blake

Richard K Knutson

Dean E Franssell

Charles A Anker

Disclosed are dry mixes for cakes, especially layer type, for the provision of finished cakes having a discontinuous pudding phase. The present dry mixes require no batter mixing or aeration but merely require the addition of measured amounts of water and baking. The present mixes comprise a cake component comprising a conventional full formulation dry mix for cakes in a particular physical form referred to as 'granulated.' Additionally, the mixes comprise a pudding component comprising a granulated form. The granules of both the cake and pudding components are each essentially characterized by the physical features of (1) particle size, (2) bulk porosity, (3) density, (4) initial rates of moisture absorption, and (5) moisture content. For the layer cake component the particle size of the layer cake granules essentially ranges from about 0.9 to 3.0 mm. The bulk porosity essentially ranges from about 0.55 to 0.64. The density essentially ranges from about 0.45 to 0.70 g./cc. The rates of initial moisture absorption essentially range (at 70.degree. F.) from about 0.055 to 0.075 gram of water per gram of mix per second. The moisture content is less than about 5%. For the pudding component, the particle size essentially ranges from about 2.8 to 3.4 mm; the bulk porosity ranges from about 0.50 to 0.65; the density ranges from about 0.5 to 0.7 g./cc; the initial rate of moisture absorption from about 0.060 to 0.080 g. H.sub.2 O/g. mix-sec., and a moisture content of less than about 5%. Conventional agglomeration equipment and techniques employing moisture as the binding agent are useful herein for preparing the granulations of the present invention.

No-stir dry mix with pudding granules for cake with discontinuous

Disclosed are food compositions and methods for preparing sugary coated puffed snack products upon simple heating of the food compositions in a consumer microwave oven. The food compositions comprise a plurality of puffable farinaceous dough puff pieces or pellets and a puffing media throughout which the puff pieces or pellets are dispersed. The puffing media comprises from about 40% to 95% by weight of a nutritive carbohydrate sweetening agent and from about 5% to 10% moisture. The weight ratio of puffing media to puff pieces ranges between about 4:1 to 0.1:1. The water activity of the food compositions is less than about 0.75. The method for making a coated snack comprises forming a gelatinized dough, shaping the dough into pieces, partially drying the pieces, dispersing the pieces throughout a puffing media to form a puffing media/piece matrix, and microwave heating the matrix to simultaneously puff the pieces and to enrobe the pieces with the fluidized puffing media.

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Brooklyn Park, MN, United States of America

Glenn J Van Hulle