Developing fresh cake product with rich nutrition and high quality has become a hot spot in food industry. In this study, whole chestnut flour as a high-quality dietary source was successfully substituted for cake flour in the production of chestnut chiffon cake with 40-55% substitution rate, and its application prospects were further evaluated through studying nutritional and storage properties. The results showed that chestnut chiffon cake with 45% and 50% substitution rate could significantly increase the resistant component, scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power, surprisingly decrease predicted glycemic index to 54.05-57.28, and reduce the acetate/propionate ratio and Firmicutes/Bacteroidetes value for human gut microbiota as well. Comparatively, chestnut chiffon cake with 45% substitution rate had more application potential due to its higher free water retention at day 7 and higher resilience throughout the storage time. Overall, this study could provide valuable information for the development of modern nutritional cake industry.

Rice flour (100%, 97.4%, 94.7%, 89.5% (w/w)) and okra powder (2.6%-10.5%) were used to replace wheat flour to make gluten-free chiffon cakes. The effects of okra powder addition on the physicochemical, color, texture, moisture content, total phenolic content, antioxidant, and sensory scores of cakes were evaluated. The batter viscosity, chewiness, ash, protein, fat, total phenolics, and antioxidant activities (1,1-diphenyl-z-picrylhydrazyl hydrate and reducing power) of cakes showed an increasing trend with okra powder addition. Gluten-free chiffon cake containing 5.3% okra powder showed significantly (p < 0.05) higher protein and ash contents as compared to their control and chiffon cake made with wheat flour. Nevertheless, center height, volume index, L*, a*, and b* values, and white index of gluten-free cake decreased with increased okra powder levels. The sensory characteristics of wheat and gluten-free chiffon cakes substituted with 2.6%-5.3% okra powder showed no difference (p > 0.05). Nevertheless, the sensory scores of the 5.3% okra powder addition cake obtained a higher preference than other gluten-free cakes. Although the overall acceptability of gluten-free chiffon cake supplemented with 10.5% okra flour had a lower (p < 0.05) overall acceptability (2.84) than all cake samples, it was still shown acceptable to consumers. Gluten-free rice chiffon cakes with high nutrient contents and antioxidant activities can be processed by the incorporation of okra powder of less than 10.5% to increase the diversification of gluten-free foods. Gluten-free cakes with high amounts of okra powder addition would produce cake having high water content, total phenol content, 1,1-diphenyl-z-picrylhydrazyl hydrate radical scavenging activity, reducing power, hardness, chewiness, cohesiveness, batter viscosity, ash, and crude protein content through principal component analysis.