What You
Need
- 3 small bowls
- Several sheets of aluminum foil
- Pie pan
- Cooking oil
- Measuring spoons
- Ingredients for one cake: (You'll need
to measure and mix this set of ingredients four times with the exceptions
that are given below.)
- 6 tablespoons flour
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 pinch of salt
- 2 or 3 pinches of baking powder
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 2 tablespoons cooking oil
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla
- Part of an egg (Break egg into a cup;
beat until mixed. Use 1/3 of it. Save the rest for 2 of the other
cakes.)
What to Do
- With your child do the following:
- Wrap several sheets of aluminum foil
around the outside of a small bowl to form a mold.
- Remove your foil "pan" and put it in a
pie pan for support.
- Oil the "inside" of the foil pan with
cooking oil so the cake doesn't stick.
- Turn the oven on to 350 degrees.
- Mix all of the dry ingredients
together.
- Add the wet ones (only use 1/3 of the
egg; save the rest for later use).
- Stir the ingredients until smooth and
all the same color.
- Pour batter into the "pan."
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Help your child to make three more
cakes, but tell him to do the following:
- Leave the oil out of one.
- Leave the egg out of another.
- Leave the baking powder out of the
third.
- After baking, have him cut each cake in
half and look inside.
- Do the cakes look different from each
other?
- Do they taste different from each
other?
- Tell your child to write about, or draw
pictures of, what he observes.
Here are some of the chemical reactions
that occur when baking the cake. Be sure to discuss them with your child
after they make their own observations.
- Heat helps baking powder produce tiny bubbles of gas, which makes the
cake light and fluffy (leavening).
- Heat causes protein from the egg to change and make the cake firm.
- Oil keeps the heat from drying out the cake.
Have fun, enjoy and let them eat cake!
