Scientific Cake Making

One of the things I love about homeschool is that schooling is not on a set schedule. Mind you, we endeavor for a set time every day, but since the home setting is more relaxed, our weekly learning can extended into the evening and on weekends. Also, there is a lot of impromtu learning. Now, I am proud to say that we have always been in the mindset that learning never stops. Even when our kids were in public school, we used every opportunity we could to talk about things and enrich our children--and there were teachers who even commented that they could tell we did. However, now that we are formally focusing our learning at home, that has expanded.

We were making a gifts for family recently. Cake in a Mug. It's a pretty simple recipe and you can find the details HERE. I have learned the hard way that you should always try a recipe first before serving it to others. So, with that in mind, we set out to taste-test the gift recipe. What should have turned out to be a 1-2-3 thing, ended up turning into much more.

First of all, the original recipe was off time-wise. The 2 minutes noted was far too much and we ended up with a burnt batch. Then there was a question as to the ingredients and some modifications I had made. In order to assure we were giving our family and friends the best gift, we realized that the recipe would have to be tested, and all the variations tried, as well as some variations we weren't planning. As we set out on this mission, Jim started telling the kids about the scientific method. He explained that while this was cooking, the same principles applied. I suggested that we should make a formal chart and record our progress. And we did.

We ended up doing 6 different versions of the recipe, altering different aspects. Jim kept track using a makeshift chart, which you can look at here. In the end, we determined that test-recipe #2 was the best. However, it was really helpful to have all of the information in front of us, and the kids learned a lot. Not to mention they had a lot of fun.

I do have to admit, after all of the testing, I didn't want to see another bite of cake for a while! Still, as we were having fun making gifts for our family, there was a great deal of satisfaction knowing our kids were learning in the process. I know that those kinds of things should be a given in homeschooling, but they still bring joy, and remind us that what we're doing is good and valid. Particularly when some of us face such criticism, to have moments like that are priceless.