Research

To prepare for my experiment, I research a few recipes in my family’s kitchen. I try to find recipes that are very basic and have a fair amount of sugar so that I can observe the differences in sugar and Splenda in baked goods. I research the effects of sugar in baked goods. Sugar has many functions in cakes and cookies. These functions are aeration, browning, bulking/bodying agent, caramelization, crystallization, flavor enhancer, foam formation, glaze formation, moisture retention, shelf life, sweetener, and tenderizer.

     I conduct some research on sugar and Splenda. As I discovered through the internet, sugar is made up sucrose which is found from either sugar cane or sugar beets. Sugar (sucrose) is a carbohydrate that occurs naturally in every fruit and vegetable. It is the major product of photosynthesis, the process by which plants transform the sun's energy into food. Sugar was introduced to Louisiana in 1751 as sugar cane and sugar beets were planted in the United States in the 1800s.

     Splenda, also known as sucralose, is a sweetener made from real sugar. Sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sugar and is derived from sugar through a process that substitutes three chlorine atoms for three hydrogen-oxygen groups on the sugar molecule (this makes the Splenda only 15 percent absorbed in the digestive tract and therefore not have any calories). Splenda is a little different from other artificial sweeteners in that it is stable at high temperatures.