Cooking activities, even simple ones like this, are filled with great learning opportunities. Along with measurement and math skills, kids can develop problem solving and literacy skills as well. By experimenting with the ways that certain ingredients act and react with each other, children will gain an understanding of basic cooking chemistry, and will even learn about design as they create and make changes to their cupcake “prototypes”.
Key ingredients are flour, sugar, baking powder, egg beaters, milk, salt, butter (or oil) and vanilla. You can introduce any other ingredients as you’d like, although keep in mind that the more ingredients you have, the more complex the recipes will be and the more you’ll need to prepare for the activity. Management of the ingredients will be easier if they are divided into several cups, with teams sharing these cups of ingredients. Make sure to label the cups properly—sugar and salt can look very similar! If you don’t have an oven, use 2 or 3 toaster ovens. Several cupcakes can bake in a toaster oven at once. Make sure to use the foil cupcake cups if baking with toaster ovens, since a cupcake tin won’t fit in the toaster.
See Suggestions (Under “Make it Better”) for how you can do this activity using mini aluminum loaf pans (found in any grocery store) so that teams have their own mini cakes. The instructions that follow are for using cupcake tins.
Flour and baking powder react with acids in ingredients such as milk to form bubbles of carbon dioxide. These bubbles get trapped in the batter as it bakes. You can see these air spaces in the cupcakes when you cut the cupcake in half, which results in a light and fluffy cupcake.
The self-raising flour contains a solid acid and base. When the mixture is wet, the acid and base react to form carbon dioxide gas. The gas bubbles cause the cupcakes to rise. Another reaction, called the Maillard reaction occurs at the same time resulting in the browning of the cupcakes.
One of the most important reactions in baking is the Maillard reaction, which occurs when heat causes amino acids and reducing sugars to combine and form the delicious brown crust that we all love.
As the batter temperature rises, the gases in the air cells expand the stretchy gluten from the flour, then the chemical leavening agents release carbon dioxide. As the batter reaches 60C, water vapour begins to form and expand the air cells even further.
Baking powder reacts to heat more than cold. When the baking powder reacts to heat it releases a gas called CO2 or carbon dioxide. It helps us understand what makes a muffin rise because it shows the heat's effect on the liquids when combined with baking powder.
In bread making, the yeast organisms expel carbon dioxide and alcohol as they feed off of sugars. As the carbon dioxide is formed, the bubbles are trapped by gluten in the wheat flour; this is why the dough volume increases or 'rises'.
Introduction: My name is Rueben Jacobs, I am a cooperative, beautiful, kind, comfortable, glamorous, open, magnificent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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