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The Math in Honey Cake

For Social Studies yesterday, Dawson was to make a Honey Cake from a recipe provided in our curriculum. It contains many of the ingredients that would have been available to Ancient Egyptians and the wealthy would have eaten this.

He decided to dress the part and put on all white, and the chef's hat. He either looked like a chef or a prison inmate, I'm sure sure. But he said he needed to dress up to keep our fans entertained.

He did this recipe all by himself, including the cream cheese orange frosting! He did a great job and it was really good! He didn't like the taste of it. I thought it was great! It has a spice cake type flavor to it, but it much thicker and heavier. The frosting is delicious and would be so good on an angel food cake!

Here is the recipe:

Honey Cake
3 1/2 c. flour, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1 tsp. baking soda, 2 tsps. baking powder, 1 1/2 tsps. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg, 1/4 tsp. ground cloves, 1/8 tsp. ground ginger, 1/2 c. granulated sugar, 1/3 c. vegetable oil, 3 eggs, 1/2 c. honey, 1 cup brewed coffee

Grease a 9" x 13" baking pan. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Stir flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger into a large bowl. In a separate bowl whisk sugar, oil, eggs, honey and coffee. Add dry ingredients to liquid ingredients gradually, whisking between each addition. Spread batter evenly into greased pan. Batter will be a little thicker than cake batter usually is. Bake for 25-30 minutes until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean. Cool. This cake is a little heavier than cake made with a box mix.

Cream Cheese Orange Frosting
Cream together with electric mixer: One 8 oz. cream cheese, softened; 1/4 c. butter, softened; 1 tsp. vanilla, 1/2 c. powdered sugar, 1/4 c. orange juice.

Frost cooled cake.

This was designated as a Social Studies lesson based on the foods Ancient Egyptians would have eaten. I noticed the math lessons, however.

He had to measure. He had to determine how many tablespoons of butter was in a quarter cup. He experienced a practical use of fractions.

Good stuff.


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