Learn

Every time you mix ingredients together and put the batter in the oven, chemical reactions take place. With this recipe you can make 4 small cakes while experimenting with the ingredients in order to discover which ingredients cause which reactions.

You’ll need an adult to help you with handling the oven and hot pans!

The following ingredients are sufficient for one small cake, but since we are going to do 4 cakes, you’ll mix and measure 4 separate times.

What You’ll Need

• A small soup or cereal bowl
• Several layers of aluminum foil
• A pie pan
• Cooking oil to grease the pans
• Measuring spoons
• A small bowl for the egg
• A mixing bowl
• Ingredients (for one small cake):
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• A pinch of salt
• 2 or 3 pinches of baking powder
• 2 tablespoons of milk
• 2 tablespoons of cooking oil
• 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla
• 1/3 of an egg (Break an egg in a cup, and beat it until it’s mixed. Use 1/3 now, and save the rest for 2 of the other cakes that you’ll make)

What to Do

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Take your soup bowl, and wrap a couple of layers of aluminum foil around the bowl to create a mold. Then, remove this foil “pan” and put it in a pie pan so it has support.
3. Pour a bit of oil in your foil “pan” so that the cake won’t stick
4. In the mixing bowl, mix all of the dry ingredients together. Combine the wet ingredients separately, then add them to the dry mixture. Stir until the batter is smooth and consistent.
5. Pour the batter into the small foil “pan.”
6. Bake the cake for 15 minutes.
7. Now, follow the same instructions for 3 more cakes, EXCEPT:
8. Leave the oil out of one.
9. Leave the egg out of another.
10. Leave the baking powder out of the third.
11. Do you see a difference in the cakes? How do they taste?

What Happened

Heat is the condition that promotes the chemical reactions.

When your batter is heated, the baking powder produces microscopic gas bubbles which make the cake fluffy. Baking powder is the “leavening agent” in this recipe.

The heat also creates a reaction in the protein make-up of the egg, which in turn, binds the ingredients together, making the cake firm.

Finally, the oil keeps the cake from drying out because it does not evaporate as readily as water.