Eke-Ejiofor J.^1,, Allen J.E¹

The effect of variety on the proximate and sensory properties of wheat millet cakes was assessed. Cake samples were produced from varying compositions of flour from wheat/millet varieties (pearl, finger and fonio millet). Wheat was substituted with 10 to 40% millet and plain wheat used as control. The cakes were evaluated for proximate and sensory properties using standard methods. The proximate composition of different wheat/millet cake showed that moisture content ranged between 15.90-19.15% (pearl),15.61-19.15% (finger) and 12.52-19.15% (fonio millet), while ash content ranged between 1.0-2.05% (pearl), 1.90-2.49% (finger) and 0.70-2.05% (fonio millet). Fat content of cakes from flour blends ranged between 18-18.67% (pearl millet), 15.91-18.00% (finger millet) and 14.90-18.00% (fonio millet), while protein content ranged between 5.75-13.16% (pearl millet), 5.75-11.85% (finger millet) and 5.35-10.54% (fonio millet) respectively. Crude fibre content ranged between 1.32-2.00% (pearl millet), 1.67-3.00% (finger millet) and 0.68-1.67% (fonio millet), while carbohydrate content of wheat/millet cakes ranged between 44.72-51.72% (pearl millet), 43.51-51.16% (finger millet) and 34.34-48.83% (fonio millet). Sensory evaluation result of cakes from blends of wheat/millet varieties showed 4.60-8.05 (pearl), 3.65-8.30 (finger) and 5.65-7.80 (fonio) for color, while appearance values ranged from 5.10-7.80, 3.20-8.50 and 5.25-7.85 for finger, pearl and fonio blend respectively. Flavor ranged between 5.05-7.90, 4.30-7.70 and 5.15-7.80 for pearl, finger and fonio millet blends, while texture values ranged between 5.60-7.50 for pearl, 3.90-7.60 for finger and 4.80-7.55 for fonio millet blend respectively. Taste ranged from 5.20 -7.86, 4.09 -7.89 and 5.20-7.86, with overall acceptability of products ranging from 5.10-8.00, 4.35-7.75 and 5.65-7.80 for pearl, finger and fonio millet blends respectively. The substitution of different quantities of millet varieties for wheat flour caused a decrease in moisture, ash and fat contents with an increase in protein, fibre and carbohydrate with cake samples competing favorably with the wheat cake sample. The study has shown millet to have good potential for confectionary production.

Millet, varieties, cakes, proximate, sensory