Cake! science experiment for kids 12/02/21

CAKE!

Learn about chemical reactions by baking 4 small cakes, leaving an important ingredient out of 3 of them. The ingredients are only for 1 cake, so you'll need to measure and mix 4 times.

What you'll need

A small soup or cereal bowl
Several layers of aluminum foil
A pie pan
Cooking oil to grease the "cake pans"
Measuring spoons
A cup or small bowl for the egg
A small mixing bowl
Your science journal

Ingredients (for one cake)

6 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
2 or 3 pinches baking powder
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons cooking oil
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
Part of an egg (Break egg into a cup, beat until mixed. Use 1/3 of it. Save the rest for 2 of the other cakes.)

What to do

1. Wrap several layers of aluminum foil around the outside of a cereal or soup bowl to form a mold.
2. Remove your foil "pan" and put it in a pie pan for support.
3. Oil the "inside" of your foil pan with cooking oil so the cake doesn't stick.
   - Grown-up alert!
4. Turn the oven on to 350 degrees.
5. Mix all of the dry ingredients together. Add the wet ones (only use 1/3 of the egg). Stir until smooth and all the same color.
6. Pour batter into the "pan."
7. Bake for 15 minutes.
8. Bake 3 more cakes:
   - Leave the oil out of one.
   - Leave the egg out of another.
   - Leave the baking powder out of the third.
   - Cut each cake in half and look at the insides.
   - Do they look different?
   - Do they taste different?
9. Write about, or draw pictures of, what you see and taste.
   - Heat helps some chemical reactions to occur as the cake bakes:
   - It helps baking powder produce tiny bubbles of gas making the cake light and fluffy (this is called leavening).
   - It causes protein from the egg to change and make the cake firm.
   - Oil keeps the heat from drying out the cake.