Question 1

Question Not Available.

OBSERVATION

In question 1a, candidates were expected to give the meaning of baking powder and the three components of baking powder. They were required to give the answer as a chemical raising/leavening agent used to make flour mixtures light and fluffy or a chemical agent added to flour mixtures to aerate/increase the volume/size/make it lighter/porous. In this question, chemical raising/leavening agent, flour mixtures, light and fluffy were the keywords which the candidates failed to state. Also, candidates could not state the three components of baking powder which include cream of tartar/tartaric acid; bicarbonate of soda /baking soda/sodium hydrogen carbonate/sodium bicarbonate / sodium pyrophosphate / sodium aluminium sulphate / calcium phosphate / mono calcium phosphate; and a starchy filler. Some candidates that attempted this question interchanged the answers as many of them wrote ‘cream of soda’ and ‘bicarbonate of tartar’ instead of the correct answers stated above.
In 1 (b) and (c), majority of the candidates were unable to explain the action of baking powder in flour mixtures and the ways of incorporating air into flour mixtures. Many of them answered 1 (b) by stating that it raises mixtures instead of stating that the powder expands on heating, releases carbon dioxide thereby aerating the mixture. Also, candidates confused methods of incorporating air into flour mixtures such as biological and physical methods for the ways of incorporating air which are sifting, creaming, whisking and beating.