Welcome To Our TAG Project Website!!!!!

This website was made by Mill Lake 3^rd grade Math TAG students Rina T., Nicholas R., and Julianna M. Our TAG teacher is Mrs. Augsbach and she is brainy and enthusiastic. Here is a picture of us, with our first cake. We are making a 3-D snowman cake with a hat. WE did not use a recipe we used our brains, we are THINKERS!

We began our project by asking questions about what we wanted to learn about in math that we did not already know.

Here are some of the questions we had to answer?

What do we want to learn?

We want to learn if we can bake a cake without a recipe, measurements and all, using our brains?

What is your purpose?

The purpose of our 3-D snowman cake is to make a cake with no original recipe, without copying the control recipe, and trying to keep track of the ingredients and the amount of the ingredients we used while making the cake sure it tastes good.

What do you want to learn?

What ingredients will we use in a 3-D snowman cake?

How much of each ingredient will we have to use and why?

What does the temperature have to be in the oven?

How long will it take to bake?

Is it possible?

How many tries will it take?

Will our cake be as good or even better than a regular cake?

What are the supplies that we need?

How many people will it serve?

How will we form the 3-D part from two flat plan cake

What mathematics will you use?

Multiplication

Division

Volume

Mass

Non-Congruency

Geometry

Symmetry

Algebra

Measurement

Time

Temperature

Ratios

Percentages

How will this areas/ concepts in math you help achieve your project outcome?

Mult. / Div.: Serving size and servings per cake.

Volume: The amount /measurements of liquids. The size of the 3-D space

inside an object.

Mass: The measurements of solids.

Symmetry: To make sure the cake is the same on both sides.

Geometry: The shapes of the cake. Solids, structures, does the cake hold its

structure?

Non-Congruency: Making sure each circle is NOT the same size.

Algebra: The unknowns/variables of the cake. Looking for patterns

Measurement: Estimate and decide how much of each ingredient we will need.

How long should we bake? Size of Snow man?

Time: How long to make and then bake? How long to cool before frosting.

When to make frosting?

Temperature: Degrees for oven to bake / refrigerator to cool

Ratios: relationship between two different numbers or quantities, serving ratios

Percentages: portion sizes, changing ingredients

Problem Solving: Using our brains to be THINKERS! Using reasoning to

replace the unknown variables to make our cake real.

Develop and test math ideas.

Data Analysis: Collecting data and looking at our notes to revise as needed and

to share with other tag class members for their ideas. To use data to ask

more questions to fix mistakes to try again or to keep as a new cake

recipe. Use data and get additional data to change recipe by adding or

eliminating as we all judge or conclude based on our conclusions we get

from the data. Compare and Contrast two sets of data: two cakes.

Probability: The likelihood or chance we will be able to actually make a real

cake that tastes good.

CAKE PROJECT:

Here is our update from the start of the project to March 30, 2007:

We began by asking ourselves questions to decide what we wanted to learn in math, that was connected to what we have learned before, but that we still wanted to learn.

We decide together to try to make a cake with our brains, not a recipe as said before.

We started by answering the questions Mrs. Augsbach suggested we start with:

What do you want to learn?

What is your purpose for learning it?

What concepts in Mathematics will you use and how will they help achieve your project outcome?

We constructed a flipbook with these answers that we presented to our tag mates. We then decided to try to bake it at our next session.

We completed our research in TAG, on conference calls, and meeting at each other’s houses.

If we had questions we asked for help from our parents, grandparents, older brothers and sisters, and Mrs. Augsbach. We used the computer to find and look at some real recipes, but did not copy them.

We also used the computer for research on what ingredients we needed and how much.

The cake recipe made 2 8” round cakes and it was bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. It was moist and sticky on the top but it still tasted good. We did some research on www.bakingandbakingscience.com to find the roles of each ingredient.

These are the first batches we made of our cake/ icing

Old ingredients

1-½ teaspoons of cinnamon

1 cup of milk

4 eggs

1-1/4 cups of flour

1-½ teaspoons of baking soda

2 cups of sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1-½ teaspoons of vanilla

¼ cup of oil

Vanilla Icing

1 stick melted butter

1 ½ cups conf. Sugar

¼ teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons milk

Yield 1 cup

Chocolate Icing

1 stick melted butter

2oz. Melted Nestlé’s Semi-sweet chocolate bricks

1 ½ cups conf. Sugar

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons evap. Milk

Yield 1 cup

We had a tasting with our tag mates, the pictures are at the end, and together we talked and agreed the cake was good, see below, but too moist and a little to sweet. We knew we wanted to try again.

At our next TAG class Mrs. Augsbach suggested we look more closely at the ingredient to see what caused the cake to be moist and sweet and go from there. We did.

We did research at home with the help of our parents when needed and found out just what we need to know.

These are the roles of each ingredient:

Flour: This is the primary structure builder in most cakes.

Sugar: Sugar is a sweetener and tenderizer.

Salt: Salt is used for taste and toning down the sweetness.

Shortening: Used for incorporating air while you mix. Also tenderizes the cake.

Eggs: They work with the flour to build structure in the cake. If the shortening is increased/ decreased the eggs have to be increased/ decreased.

Milk Solids: Adds toughness to the cake.

Leavening: Incorporates air while you mix and adds consistency to the batter/baking temp.

These are the changes we made to the cake recipe:

We added 2 dashes of salt.

To cut a little of the sweetness

We changed our flour measurement to 1-¾ cups.

To add more structure.

This is our new recipe for the cake:

New Ingredients

1-½ teaspoons of cinnamon

1 cup of milk

4 eggs

1-3/4 cups of flour

1-½ teaspoons of baking soda

2 cups of sugar

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1-½ teaspoons of vanilla

¼ cup of oil

2 dashes of salt

Here are a few notes that we took:

Sugar and flour ratio should be 100%-145% depending on how much sweetness is desired.

Mix dry ingredients by hand.

In mixing bowl, mix wet ingredients w/ electric mixer. Once mixed, slowly add dry ingredients to wet. Mix on slow then increase to medium speed for 2-3 minutes to incorporate air.

To be continued…….