Chemical Imbalance

From a recent New York Times article:

Taking the destabilizing effects of sugar to an extreme is the tunnel-of-fudge cake. "It is so deadly, you can't believe how deadly it is," she said. "We are deliberately doing a cake with way too much sugar."

Sugar, she explained, binds to the flour proteins, preventing them from forming the structural lattice. "Glutenin runs off with sugar," Ms. Corriher said. "Gliadin runs off with sugar, and you don't get much gluten."

When baked, the outer portions reach a high enough temperature that they harden, but the cooler inner part remains soft and gooey.

"We've eaten a whole cake, the two of us," Ms. Corriher said.

Her husband interjected, "Over a period of time."

"It was a very brief period of time," Ms. Corriher said.