Kitchen Chemistry Experiment: Make a Cup Cake {Summer Science Series}

Chemistry is the theme for week 5 of our Summer Science Series with Edventures with Kids. Today we’re doing some kitchen chemistry and baking a cup cake. Affiliate links are included in this post. Thanks for supporting Inspiration Laboratories!

Whopper Cake

Whopper Cake by Karma Wilson is a very silly book. Granddad wants to make Grandma’s birthday extra special, so he makes a whopper cake. He doesn’t exactly follow the recipe deciding to add much more of each ingredient than required. The cake batter is so massive, he has to mix it in his truck! The heat of the sun bakes the cake. The whole town helps frost the cake and they surprise Grandma with the whopper cake. The book rhymes in typical Karma Wilson fashion. You’ll have fun reading it and want to make your own cake. There’s even a recipe in the back.

Kitchen Chemistry Experiment: Make a Cup Cake in the Microwave

Have you ever baked a cake in the microwave? Before this experiment, I had not. I first saw the idea on Kids Activities Blog. They have a 2 Minute Hot Chocolate Cake recipe that looks delicious. Their recipe called for boxed mixes {which makes it super easy}, but I wanted to let the kids experiment and make their own recipe. I searched for more microwave chocolate cake recipes and compared all of their ingredients. Honestly, there wasn’t much variation in the recipes. Did those small variations cause big changes in the results of the cake? That’s what we wanted to test.

Here’s what you’ll need:

flour
cocoa powder
sugar
baking powder
salt
milk
oil or butter
peanut butter {optional}
eggs
vanilla

Most of the recipes called for eggs. The few that didn’t claimed to be more brownie like than cake like. I didn’t want to use an egg for all of our experiments so we only used it in one. {I also happened to be out of milk so we used sweetened condensed milk.}

Aiden’s friend, Lindsey, made “cup” cakes with us. They called them cup cakes because we made the cakes in cups {tea cups/coffee mugs}.

I had them follow my directions to make their first cakes. As they mixed their dry ingredients, we talked about mixtures. {Here’s another fun making mixtures activity.}

For their second cakes, I let them change the amounts of the ingredients to create their own recipe. Each of the kids added ingredients to their bowls {to make stirring easier}. I helped them finish stirring. Then, we transferred the batter to the cups.

Cake Recipe 1:

1/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
5 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons of canola oil

Aiden’s Cake Recipe:

1/4 cup plus 1/8 cup flour
1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk
3 tablespoons of canola oil
1/2 tablespoon peanut butter
splash of vanilla
1 tablespoon water

Lindsey’s Cake Recipe:

1/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
5 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons of canola oil
1/2 tablespoon peanut butter
splash of vanilla
2-3 tablespoons water

My Cake Recipe:

1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1 tablespoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
5 tablespoons of sweetened condensed milk
2 tablespoons of canola oil
1 egg
splash of vanilla

For each cake recipe, mix ingredients together. Microwave for 1 minute. If it seems too wet still, microwave for another 20 seconds or so. {For my cake recipe, I microwaved the cake for 2 minutes total.} Be careful not to over cook your cake or it will turn to a rock.

Our first cake was microwaved too long. The top part of the cake was edible but the bottom was too hard. The second attempt at the first recipe was a little better, but it still seemed a bit dry and parts of it were hard.

Aiden’s batter was a little sticker than brownie batter {photo below}.

Aiden’s recipe was cooked for only 70 seconds. It came out soft and tasty. Somewhere in between a brownie and a cake.

Lindsey’s recipe was cooked for 1 minute 40 seconds because the batter started out much wetter than Aiden’s {batter photo below}.

It too resulted in a soft and tasty cake that was in between a brownie and a cake. Aiden and Lindsey’s cakes both tasted very similar even though they used different ratios.

My cake was most different because of the addition of the egg. The cake rose in the microwave above the mug. The kids said it was just like in Whopper Cake {where the cake rose above the bed of the truck}. The texture was more cake like and it wasn’t as sweet as the other recipes. I enjoyed this cake with some chocolate ice cream.