3.2. Comparison of microwaved and conventional pound cakes The pound cake baked in microwave oven presented a significant differences (P 0.05) compared with the product baked conventionally in the seven parameters evaluated (Table 3): weight (36.2 vs. 40.6 g), moisture (21.3 vs. 36.2 g/100 g), density (0.37 vs. 0.46 g/cm3), water activity (0.87 vs. 0.93), volume (98.3 vs. 88.4 cm3), weight loss (19.3 vs. 9.8 g) and luminosity (84.5 vs. 82.8 URR). Two main differences were present: a) the microwaved cake presented more volume than conventionally baked and b) the microwaved product presented a higher luminosity, (11% more volume and 2% more luminosity). These results represent a significant improvement in microwave pound cake baking if they are compared with the results obtained by Içöz, Summu, and Sahin (2004), Ozmutlu, Sumnu, & Sahin (2001); these authors informed that pound cake microwave baked in a single cycle microwave oven, resulted with lower volume and no crust or brown color.