Statistical analysis revealed no significant 2-way and 3-way interactions among factors on hardness data (p > 0.05). However, EE, as a main effect, significantly retarded hardness increase (Supplementary Table 3). The anti-staling effects of EE directly correlated to the residual ethanol content. The results are in agreement with reported anti-staling effects of ethanol in previous studies (Latou et al., 2010; Pafumi & Durham, 1987). The antistaling effect of ethanol could arise from the formation of complexes between ethanol-amylose/amylopectin that could prevent retrogradation (Pateras, 2007), and plasticization effect of ethanol on protein networks in the cake crumb (Kalathenos & Russell, 2003).