Method and apparatus for forming cakes

A method of forming a cake from a sticky confectionary material produced by adding a binder prepared by mixing 8 to 30 parts by weight of sucrose and/or glucose syrup and from 5 to 15 parts by weight of water, to a base in granular form prepared by mixing from 40 to 80 parts by weight of cereal flour, from 0 to 20 parts by weight of sucrose, from 0.5 to 3 parts by weight of oil or fat and from 0 to 3 parts by weight of water, and extrusion cooking under conditions such that an expanded cooked base having a density of from 0.1 to 0.3 g/cm.sup.3 is obtained at the exit of an extrusion nozzle and reduced to granular form;

• the method comprising the steps of depositing on an endless conveyor run intermittently said material in the form of plural bands of material extending transversely of said downstream direction, there being gaps between adjacent ones of such bands so that the bands and gaps are disposed in alternating sequence along the length of the conveyor, a scraper displacing material from the top of each such band into an adjacent one of said gaps as the band passes beneath the scraper upon movement of the conveyor to thereby form each band into a layer of substantially uniform thickness without unduly compressing the band and breaking the structure of the granules, transporting each layer to a position beneath at least one vertically disposed hollow cylinder whose wall is tapered at its lower end and inside which is a piston, advancing the cylinder downwardly so that it cuts through the sticky material until the lower edge of said cylinder contacts said surface and severs the sticky material within the cylinder from the layer, then advancing the piston downwardly to compress the severed sticky material to between about 40% and about 60% of its original thickness to form the cake, maintaining such compression for between 0.5 to 5.0 seconds, and then retracting the cylinder and piston together upwardly so that the cylinder and piston carry with them essentially without other means the formed cake, and then expelling and releasing the formed cake from the cylinder by advancing the piston downwardly.