Darcy S. ONeil
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Rum+Popcorn+Vanilla=Cake Flavour
🕑 Added 2025-03-08 12:46:10 +0000 UTCThough we often think the flavour of commercial cake mixes or cake icing is just vanilla, it is, in fact, a modification of vanilla. The two compounds that are mixed with vanilla to give this unique taste are Rum Ether and Popcorn Pyrazine (2-Acetyl Pyrazine). The combination works better than plain vanilla.
When formulating this, you want the vanilla notes to be present, so we will use a lot of vanilla, but modifying it with the popcorn pyrazine is done at low levels. I've dialed in this formula to be in the middle of the range listed by FEMA at 2.5 ppm per litre (FEMA max is 5 ppm). The popcorn note is quite obvious, so if you want, you can dial it back a bit, though I quite like this formula as is.
You can use this in food or drinks. If you want to make an icing recipe with it, simply add one to two drops (maybe more) for every 100 grams of the icing. A quick look found a recipe that weighs roughly 600 grams, so 6 to 12 drops should work (0.15 to 0.3 mL up to 0.5 mL) in volumetric measurements. I would recommend adjusting any additional vanilla added to the icing or removing it. But as always, taste as you go. And you can even add this to the cake batter in a similar manner as this is how commercial products are made. You can see natural or artificial flavours listed on the box, and this is often what they are.
Cake Flavour
16.0 g Vanillin = 4 mg/drop (FEMA AVG: 35 ppm)
4.0 g Ethyl Vanillin = 1 mg/drop (FEMA AVG: 20 to 100 ppm)
2.0 g Dihydrocoumarin = 0.5 mg/drop (FEMA AVG: 25 ppm)
8.0 g Rum Ether = 2 mg/drop (FEMA AVG: 65 to 80 ppm)
1.0 g 2-Acetyl Pyrazine 0.25 mg/drop (FEMA AVG: 5 ppm)
69 g Ethanol or Propylene Glycol*
Total: 100 g
* The FEMA average is per kilogram, so 35 ppm would be 35 mg per kilo. At 4 mg per drop, 10 drops in a kilo (litre) of beverage, icing, or batter would equal 40 mg.
** Depending on the solvent and the size of your dropper, your drop size may vary. When using mostly alcohol, I find my average drop size is ~25 mg, but with propylene glycol, it could go up to 40 or 50, so if you are using PG, check your drop size and adjust accordingly.
Modifications
As always, my goal is to give you the basic formula and then some tips to enhance or twist the flavour. This is actually the fun part of working with flavours, and I strongly encourage you to play around because it will help you understand how one compound can modify the flavours of all the others in a formula.
Acetoin or Diacetyl 10% will add a buttery flavour, which will obviously work with cake. You can add a few drops to the concentrate or even up to a gram, though the butter flavour may dominate at the higher levels.
Whisky Lactone (or other lactones): Lactones are just a form of ester, and they often have a coumarin, coconut and slightly burnt/toasty note and note really whisky because these compounds come from the oak barrel. This works well, as the popcorn pyrazine is actually a roasted/toasted note and since we are using rum ether, the whisky lactone will complement it.
Rum P. Jungle Essence is the magical CO2 extracted rum essence. It smells fantastic but is quite expensive. In the future, I will be making a fantastic non-alcoholic Hot Buttered Rum using this extract and the CO2 extracted butter essence from MANE as well.
Anyway, if you have questions, post them below.
Comments
Darcy S. O'Neil
Yes, when using diluted materials, just factor in the amount of solvent, just like you did. And yes, if you find 2AP excessive, dilute your flavour and you can add more of the complementary compounds to balance it out. Basically, make a second batch, skipping the 2AP, combine it with the first mixture and then add a 1/4 or 1/2 the amount of 2AP to try to balance it. 2AP is potent.
Luke Hood
Late to the party, hoping I can still get a question in.I ended up having to use the 5 PG 2-acetyl pyrazine, so 20g liquid to get to 1g for the recipe. I did not end up reducing the amount of solvent to account for this, but presumably would have reduced solvent by ~19g. Question - the pyrazine ended up completely dominating the flavor. Should I use a reduced amount of the 5 PG liquid to fit the recipe?
Darcy S. O'Neil
For a pure popcorn pyrazine essence the max level is 5 mg/L so just follow the video, using only the popcorn pyrazine. I believe the level in this video is 2.5 mg/L, based on my drop size, your results may vary.
Nathaniel Benson
Hello Darcy, what's a good ratio of solvent to powder if I'm just trying to make popcorn essence?
