Tom’s Throwback Thursday — Cake Chemistry

It’s been a pretty weird couple of weeks getting used to social distancing and spending a lot of time at home. My wife is a doctor so it’s just been me and the cat and, while I’m lucky that I do still have work to do, I’ve been trying to find some sciencey, curious things to do to keep me sane.

I’m sure I’m not the only one feeling a bit cooped up and I’ve got massive respect for anyone juggling all this with homeschooling or caring for friends and family members so I wanted to share some activities that the whole family could get involved with.

Every Thursday, I’ll be sharing a classic video from We The Curious’ YouTube channel with some ideas of things that people can try at home. Expect some hands-on mess, some fresh-faced young presenters and, hopefully, something jolly that you can have a go at at home.

HOW TO BAKE A CAKE, WITH SCIENCE 🧪🔬

I chose this video for week one for a few reasons:

• Cake is great
• I already had all the ingredients at home (and, if you don’t, it doesn’t really matter)
• Baking is basically science, maths and art all rolled together. (Boom. Homeschooling.)
• There is loads of scope for experimenting and changing your own recipes. Try putting other foods to the same test.
• I was looking at the video archive before lunch and I was preeeety hungry

So, grab your spatulas and get involved. Oh, and let me know how it goes! Share some pictures of your masterpieces/disasters with We The Curious on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram!

Full recipe below the video

Quick recipe:

• Add 60g margarine to 60g sugar & stir.
• Whisk an egg & add this to the mixture.
• Add a tablespoon of milk and two drops of vanilla extract.
• Add 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder to 50g of plain flour & fold into the mixture.
• Pour into cake molds and bake at 180 degrees C for 10–12 minutes.

Looking to incorporate this into a home lesson? Our Education Manager Mark has shared the top curriculum links and some ideas for this activity! 👇

Key Stage 1:

• Asking simple questions and recognising that they can be answered in different ways
• Performing simple tests
• Using their observations and ideas to suggest answers to questions

Key Stage 2:

• Setting up simple practical enquiries, comparative and fair tests
• Recording findings using simple scientific language, drawings, labelled diagrams, keys, bar charts, and tables
• Planning different types of scientific enquiries to answer questions, including recognising and controlling variables where necessary
• Using test results to make predictions to set up further comparative and fair tests

Key Stage 3:

• Make predictions using scientific knowledge and understanding
• Select, plan and carry out the most appropriate types of scientific enquiries to test predictions, including identifying independent, dependent and control variables
• Present observations and data using appropriate methods, including tables and graphs

Key Stage 4:

• Planning experiments to make observations, test hypotheses or explore phenomena
• Making and recording observations and measurements using a range of apparatus and methods
• Evaluating methods and suggesting possible improvements and further investigations

Activities:

Easy — Can you design a way to record your results in order to compare the cakes? (This could be picture or word based)

Medium — Can you create your own scale to compare the cakes using? (Examples — colour, crumb size, height of cake produced.) Can you describe what you did via your own short video or by drawing a comic strip?

Hard — Can you write this up as you would an experiment at school including your hypothesis, prediction, apparatus, method, results and conclusions? Can you use scientific language where possible?

On your marks. Get set. BAKE! 😉🍰