INTRODUCTION Millets are the powerhouse of many nutrients. These are found to be more nutritious and can be used as a replacement for regular cereals like wheat, rice and maize. Regular consumption of millets can be helpful to maintain good health. Millets are grown in several parts of the world. These low-maintenance crops require fewer inputs and are adapted to adverse conditions like extreme weather, alkaline soil, drought, etc., thus making them environment-friendly (Saxena et al., 2018; Asrani et al., 2021). Millets are widely grown in the Asian and African continents and India is the largest producer of millet crops across the world (Banerjee and Maitra 2020). The storage time of millet crops is also higher. Thus, these crops can be effectively used during emergencies like famines and can help to mitigate the problem of food scarcity (Amadou et al., 2013). Millets are highly abundant in nutrient content, especially micro-nutrients. On the basis of grain size, millets can be classified into major and minor millets. When compared to major millets, minor millets are used in a less frequent basis. Little millet (Panicum sumatrense) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica) are two such important minor millet crops that are cultivated by humankind from time immemorial. Both millets belong to the Poaceae family. Due to the corresponding warming and cooling effects that both millets have on the body, foxtail millet is referred to as “warm food” and little millet as “cool food” (Pradeep and Sreerama 2018). Foxtail millet, also called as Italian millet, is largely cultivated in Asian countries like India and China. In India, it is known by various names in various languages, such as Kakum in Hindi, Korra in Telugu and Tenai in Tamil (Sunil et al., 2016). Foxtail millet contains a sufficiently good amount of protein (11.13 to 18.75%) and fiber (210 g/kg) content. As compared to other cereals, the carbohydrate content of foxtail millet is generally low (Sachdev et al., 2021). Additionally, foxtail millet contains a high amount of thiamine (0.59 mg/100 g), vitamin E (31 mg/100 g) and phosphorous (422 mg/100 g). It also contains other minerals like zinc and iron (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2017). Foxtail millet contains certain phytochemicals and exhibits antioxidant and antiproliferative activity. The millet grain phenolics contain ferulic acid, chlorogenic acid, xanthophylls, etc., which deactivates free radicals and thus, protects the body from cellular damage (Zhang and Liu 2015). Little millet is known as ‘kutki’ in Hindi and ‘samalu’ in Telugu (Patel et al., 2020). It has an excellent nutrient profile which includes about 7.7 g of protein, 7.6 g of crude fibre, 4.7 g of fat and 1.5 g of minerals. The micronutrients like iron and calcium are also present in good percentages in the little millet, i.e., 9.3 mg and 17 mg respectively (Gopalan et al., 2010). Apart from these, other micronutrients like phosphorous (220 mg), zinc (116 mg), magnesium (2.97 g/kg), carotenoids (78 μg/100 g), tocopherol (1.3 mg/100 g) and niacin (3.2 mg) are present as well in the millet. The fat content of little millet is rich in PUFA (Polyunsaturated fatty acid) and the starch content is comparatively lower than other cereals (Bhat et al., 2018; Chauhan et al., 2018; Pasha et al., 2018; Dey et al., 2022). Little millet is also found to exhibit positive effects in the body. It contains a good amount of dietary fiber, which in turn is beneficial for gut health. The composition of dietary fiber was reported as 29.48% of insoluble and 1.33% of soluble dietary fiber (Chauhan et al., 2018). Little millet also contains many phytonutrients like gallic acid, vanillic acid, caffeic acid, ferulic acid, etc. and it also possesses radical scavenging activity (Saleh et al., 2013). The products made by incorporating foxtail and little millet hold a lot of potential in the market. Due to the increasing awareness of the benefits of consuming millets among people, their attitude towards millets is changing. Now more and more people know about the benefits of consuming millets. Owing to this, it is necessary to know the perception of the common mass in order to decide the success rate of any product. In this regard, evaluation techniques like sensory evaluation, consumer acceptance studies, etc., are conducted which provide the base to approve or deny any product. Thus, the current research is focused on the “Organoleptic and consumer evaluation studies of jaggery incorporated millet-based cakes”. MATERIALS AND METHODS The present research was conducted at Millet Processing and Incubation Center (MPIC) and Post Graduate and Research Center (PGRC), Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad. Development of cake. For the preparation of cake, the ingredients used were refined wheat flour, little millet flour, foxtail millet flour, sugar, sunflower oil, curd, milk, baking soda, baking powder and vanilla essence. Refined wheat flour was replaced in the proportions of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% by each millet (separately), as mentioned in Table 1, while keeping other ingredients constant. One-one formulation of each millet was selected by sensory analysis for further studies. For the preparation of cakes, the steps followed are mentioned in Fig. 1. Development of jaggery cake. In the selected formulations of millet cakes, sugar was replaced with jaggery in the proportions of 25%, 50%, 75% and 100%, as mentioned in Table 2, while other ingredients were kept constant. Similar steps were followed for the preparation of jaggery cakes as mentioned in Fig. 1. The final formulations of jaggery cakes were selected by sensory evaluation. Sensory analysis. Sensory analysis was done by a semi-trained panel of 15 members using a 9-point hedonic scale (Meilgaard et al., 1999). They compared all the formulated cakes and gave scores according to their perception. Statistical analysis was performed for the obtained responses and one cake formulation of each millet was selected for further research. Consumer evaluation studies. The final selected formulations were subjected to consumer evaluation studies. A structured questionnaire was developed in Google forms and the link was sent to the consumers after providing the cakes for evaluation. The questionnaire consisted of general information about the consumers and questions related to their perception and attitude towards the developed cakes. A total of 75 consumers were selected at random for the study (Chambers, 1994). RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Sensory analysis of millet and jaggery cakes. The control cake with refined wheat flour (CTL) obtained the highest sensory scores amongst all the formulated cakes. As the incorporation of millet flour increased, the mean sensory score for each attribute decreased. FCS1 and LCS1 obtained the highest scores in all the parameters among foxtail millet and little millet cakes respectively. The least accepted formulations were FCS4 and LCS4. This can be due to the fact that higher millet incorporation brought about evident changes in the flavour and texture of the cakes. Moreover, due to the absence of gluten, the cakes became crumbly and couldn’t hold their shapes properly. Based on the analysis data, the selected formulations of millet cake for further analysis were FCS3 and LCS3. The addition of jaggery in the cakes brought about positive changes in the texture and taste of the cakes. The mean scores for the jaggery cakes were above 7 (liked moderately), for all the formulations. The mean sensory scores for the formulations containing 100% jaggery, i.e., FCJ4 and LCJ4, ranged from 8.4 (appearance) to 7.73 (after taste) and 8.46 (appearance) to 7.4 (after taste) respectively. These formulations were more preferred by the panelists than other cakes for some parameters like texture, taste, etc. The differences in the mean sensory scores among the control and millet cakes are depicted in Fig. 2 and 3. A similar study was conducted to develop biscuits, cake and cookies by adding foxtail millet flour at 10, 20 and 30 percent levels by replacing wheat flour. The sensory evaluation was performed on the developed products and the results reveal that at 20 and 30 percent incorporation of millet flour, the products received good sensory scores (Shadang and Jaganathan 2014). In another study, germinated millet flour was used along with rice flour in various proportions to make gluten-free cakes. The samples with 50% millet flour had highly acceptable and significantly different sensory scores among all the prepared products (Nada et al., 2016). Lamdande et al. (2018) reported that upon replacing sugar with jaggery in various proportions to develop muffins, the formulation containing 84% jaggery obtained acceptable quality parameters and were organoleptically more acceptable compared to other formulations. Being good in texture, obtaining higher scores in sensory evaluation and taking the health point into consideration, the final selected cakes were FCJ4 and LCJ4. Consumer evaluation studies were conducted for these cakes so as to find out the success rate of these products among the people. Consumer evaluation. Consumer evaluation is necessary to know the attitude of the people about any product. It helps to ascertain whether a product will be approved in the market or not. The consumer acceptance study for the selected products was done including 75 participants, out of which 81% were females and the rest 19% were males, belonging to various age groups as mentioned in Fig. 4. The participants tasted the products and rated them using a 5-point hedonic scale for various parameters including appearance, colour, flavour, taste, texture and overall acceptability. Both cakes received good scores for all the parameters. The average of the sensory scores for both cakes is presented in Fig. 5. Among both the cakes, little millet cake (LCJ4) was preferred more by most of the consumers. It received higher scores for appearance (4.37), flavour (4.07), taste (4.19), texture (4.25) and overall acceptability (4.33), while the colour parameter of foxtail millet cake (FCJ4) obtained higher score (4.31) as compared to little millet cake (LCJ4) which obtained a score of 4.16. A study conducted by Mahalaxmi and Hemlatha (2018) to develop little millet based cookies by incorporating jaggery revealed similar results. The millet based cookies with organic jaggery replacing sugar in the ratio of 100:0 showed highly acceptable results in the sensory and consumer evaluation. Consumer’s responses towards likeness, cost, acceptance and benefits of the products. The consumers preferred the given cakes over the ones which are generally available in the market. The major reasons to prefer jaggery over sugar, as mentioned by the participants, are displayed in Figure 6. The majority of the consumers (69.3%) hailed health consciousness as the major factor followed by its nutritive value to replace sugar with jaggery. The consumers further mentioned their frequency of buying the millet-based cakes. As mentioned in Fig. 7, about 54% of the participants wanted to buy the cakes once a week, whereas 13% and 28% of them wanted to buy them twice a week and monthly, respectively. Participants agreed that the production of such products will be a healthy initiative as these products are nutrient-rich and suitable for all age groups. The consumers had an overall positive attitude towards the developed cakes. Azzizah and Handayani (2021) developed millet coffee cake by substituting regular flour with millet flour. The results showed that the consumers highly accepted the cake containing 50% millet flour.