Skip to main content

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.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

CTC Math {Schoolhouse Review}

We found our groove with math this year. I found a curriculum that both of the kids respond well to and seem to enjoy (as much as one can enjoy math). We have spent the whole year learning the ins and outs of multiplication and were just a few lessons away from being ready to move onto the next year-long level on division. And then an opportunity to review the 12 Month Family Plan from  CTC Math became available. To be honest, I wasn't very enthusiastic. I mean, why mess with the methods that have worked so well? When I was chosen to review the product I didn't go into it with the level of enthusiasm that it deserved. We have been using a dvd/workbook curriculum with great success. The 12 Month Family Plan from CTC Math is a web based curriculum. As we have not had a lot of luck with those types of programs, I went into this review with a negative attitude. And then my socks were knocked off by how great it is. In fact it is so great that we are going to continue to ...

Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Old Testament and Ancient Egypt (Schoolhouse Review)

For the past several weeks we have been reviewing Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Old Testament and Ancient Egypt and the Old Testament and Ancient Egypt Flashcards  from Veritas Press . As we were entering into our more easy-going summer schedule, and had just concluded a two-year Old Testament Bible course, I was happy to try out this product as it appeared to be something that Eli and Brynne could do together, alone, and would act as a review of the Old Testament presented in a different way. And I was right. Each Veritas Press Self-Paced History program includes 160 lessons teaching about 32 events in history. They are designed for children in grades 2-6, and it is recommended that the student be a minimum of 7 years of age at the time of the first lesson. What We Received We received a full one-year subscription, for one child, to the online Veritas Press Self-Paced History: Old Testament and Ancient Egypt program and the accompanying Old Testament and Ancien...

Cells ~ It's What's for Dinner

Dawson made edible cells on Friday. He made an animal cell pizza ... and a plant cell chocolate chip cookie ... He reviewed what he's learned about cells the past two weeks, and I had dinner made by someone else. Win, win!! I am linking up at Science Sunday at Adventures in Mommydom.