("I know what kind of cake I want this year!" she announced months ago. Have fun, sweetie! Use the generic brand of Monistat! Text me! You can encourage them to conduct additional experiments and present their findings to the group in true science-fair fashion.Besides the incredible nick-of-time arrival of spring-birdsong, twilit dinners, crocuses, bare-legged children, heaven-lots of other stuff has been happening around here.īirdy, for example, is heading off to college. Older students can be encouraged to do more in-depth research to discover exactly how each of those ingredients accomplishes its job in the baking process. Younger children will enjoy simply finding out what function each ingredient in the cake batter serves. The cake that has no oil in the batter will be very dry and crumbly, because the oil normally keeps the cake from drying out in the heat of the oven. The cake that has no egg will have a very strange texture because the protein in egg gets harder when heated to help the cake become firm. Baking powder is responsible for making the bubbles in the batter that leave the cake light and fluffy. The cake lacking baking powder will be flat and somewhat hard. By looking at the cakes and matching them up with the missing ingredients, the children will find out what jobs each ingredient is doing. Each of the main ingredients in traditional cake recipes is serving an important purpose. Why did each cake turn out the way that it did? Getting Down to ScienceĬakes “work” because the heat from the oven causes chemical reactions to occur in the batter. While they are looking and tasting, discuss the science that they are noticing. Look at the insides, and offer tastes of each to the group. When the cakes are done and have cooled enough to handle safely, cut into all four cakes. Be sure to keep track of which cake is which! Bake for 15 minutes. Put the batter into one of the foil pans. Here are general directions for the small cakes, but don’t forget to leave an ingredient out of three of them! Leave the following ingredients out of the other cakes: oil out of one cake, egg out of the second, and baking powder out of the third. One should have all of the ingredients above. Remove the foil from the bowl and put it in a pie pan for support. Wrap several layers of foil around the outside of the cereal bowl to mold into a small bowl shape. Ingredients for 4 cakes (amounts shown are for one cake)Ĭooking oil to grease pans. Small cereal bowl, aluminum foil, pie pan, measuring spoons, small bowl for egg, small mixing bowl, knife to cut cake, timer, oven and mixing spoon. Some steps may require a bit of practice, and you’ll want a flawless performance when you are helping kids try the steps in your classroom or group. Supplies and Ingredientsīefore you present this experiment to children, you’ll want to try it out yourself in the privacy of your own kitchen. Help them apply the scientific method and reasoning skills to the process with this simple hands-on experiment that shows why cakes need the ingredients that are in the recipe.
Many have wondered exactly how the cake changes from batter to confection, and a surprising number have come to erroneous conclusions like the oven drying the batter out. They’ve seen cake batter go into the oven and seen the resulting fluffy cake come out after the baking time. For example, most children are familiar with cake baking, even if they’ve only watched (and smelled) the process from a distance.
What kid can resist edible science? Kitchen experiments can be the most interesting, because they involve common, everyday household items and yet point out some great science concepts.
0 kommentar(er)
