We have been spending an awful lot of time baking lately! My middle son has become enamored with baking up all sorts of wonderful new cupcake flavors and varieties. It has prompted us to learn more about the science behind baking and has flowed so nicely into our
100 Days of Science Challenge!
He is so interested in HOW baking works that he got a book for Easter called
I'm Just Here for More Food by Alton Brown.
We've been spending a bit of time reading through it as we cook up new recipes; experimenting with changing up ingredients and seeing how they act together. It's a huge 330+ page book and we've only just begun to read it here and there but he's already learning so much about the science behind baking!
We learned first hand last week how dense cupcakes will turn out when we add fresh fruit to them.
We learned that if you forget a very important, like milk, when making cupcakes they might not look anything like cupcakes by the time you're finished baking them... and we had to throw that batch away!
We've had so much fun cooking up snickerdoodle cupcakes with cinnamon frosting, apple spice cupcakes with homemade caramel buttercream frosting, chocolate cupcakes with whipped chocolate ganache, and even mint chocolate cupcakes with cream cheese buttercream & Andes thin mint candies.
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| Mixing up our caramel |
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| Making caramel buttercream |
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| apple spice cupcakes-- see the apple shreds? You can tell that they're more dense than traditional cupcakes |
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| All frosted |
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| Measuring carefully |
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| Our chocolate cupcakes |
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| Topped with whipped chocolate ganache |
We made apple pies one night as a whole family. We talked about what kids of apples we use. Why we coat them in flour, sugar and spices. How they cook up to make the gooey center of the pie and so much more too.
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| Rolling out the pie dough (yes, we used a pre- made crust this time) |
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| mixing up all the dry ingredients |
I am so thrilled that my boys are interested in learning more about cooking and baking. I encourage them to try out new recipes all the time.
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| Frosting our chocolate mint cupcakes |
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| Adding mint sprinkles |
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| Mixing up snickerdoodle cupcakes |
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| We swirl in the cinnamon/ sugar mixture to the batter leaving large lumps of cinnamon/ sugar goodness in every bite. |
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| I just adore the cinnamon frosting... it would have been amazing on the apple cupcakes too! |
There is nothing like cooking up a yummy science experiment!
Others in this series:
1.
Bernoulli's Principle
2.
Ecotarium Trip
3.
Air Molecule Experiment
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