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Parents and children experiment with combining common baking ingredients to make their own cupcake recipe.
| Materials Needed: |
Small Spoon Ingredients: |
Large Spoon Ingredients: |
Scoop Ingredients |
- index cards
- 1 or 2 toaster ovens
- aluminum foil
- colored toothpicks
- cupcake liners
- cupcake tins
- plastic bowls
- plastic spoons
- six 1/8 teaspoons
- five tablespoons
- four ¼ cup scoops
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- salt
- vanilla
- cinnamon
- cocoa
- baking powder
- baking soda
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- milk
- oil
- butter
- water
- eggs
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- flour
- sugar
- brown sugar
- powdered sugar
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To Do:
- To get ready, place the ingredients in bowls, with labels indicating the contents. Arrange them on the table by spoon/scoop size. (If you have multiple tables, you may want to separate each type - small spoon, large spoon, and scoop - on a different table.) Preheat the oven(s) to 350 degrees. You may want to line the bottom of the oven with aluminum foil for ease of cleaning. Line the cupcake tins with liners.
- Gather the parents and children and review the various ingredients. Remind them that they will only be making one cupcake, so they should be careful as they add their various ingredients. As they create their batter, ask them to write their "recipe" on an index card. To help the children (and adults), you might want to talk about some of the important ingredients cakes need. What makes them rise? What makes them sweet? What ingredients add flavor? What makes the dough wetter? What might make help make the dough less runny? Encourage them to think about different types of dough, i.e., cookie dough vs. cake batter? What consistency should the cake batter have?
- As participants finish making their batter, you may want to assist them in pouring the batter into a cupcake tin and marking it with a colored toothpick.
- When the batch of cakes look like they are cooked (and some may never look finished due to the addition of too much baking soda), remove them from the oven and allow participants to try their recipes, if they dare.
- After everyone has had an opportunity to test their cupcake, gather the group together for reflection. What might they do differently next time? What surprised them about some of the ingredients? If someone had something strange occur to his cupcake, what does he/she think caused it and how might he change his/her recipe to avoid it in the future.
- If time allows, allow participants to make a second cupcake so they can use their newly gained knowledge.
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