Using Numbers to Bake and Create

This week, as part of our inquiry into how “numbers help us make sense of and organise our world,” we revisited the idea of how numbers are used in recipes and food preparation.

We read the story Froggy Bakes a Cake, in which the main character excitedly tries to help make a birthday cake for his mother. In his enthusiasm, however, Froggy rushes and dumps random amounts of ingredients into the bowl without following a recipe — with very messy and inedible results! Together, we reflected on why Froggy’s cake did not turn out successfully and concluded that recipes are important because they tell us exactly how much of each ingredient is needed.

The children were then introduced to a simple “mug cake” recipe — a small cake made in a cup and cooked in the microwave. They were very excited to learn that each pair of children would work together to make their own cake mixture, which would then be divided into two smaller cups so that each child could enjoy their very own cake to eat.

Working with a partner, the children carefully referred to the recipe to check how many spoonfuls of sugar, flour, milk, and baking powder were needed. They also added melted butter and egg before mixing everything together. Once the mixture had been divided into cups and decorated with sprinkles, the cakes were placed in the microwave to cook.

The children were fascinated to see how the cake mixture had risen and expanded as it cooked, reaching the top of the cups. After allowing the cakes to cool, everyone happily enjoyed eating their creations with a spoon!

We agreed that checking the numbers in a recipe is very important — otherwise we might end up with a big mess, just like Froggy!

The KG1 Team