Tots and Me... Growing Up Together: Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen #25: Moon Cake

Time for Kids and a Mom in the Kitchen

(A weekly linky where you can share your special time in the kitchen, such a great place for learning. You can also link up Kid-Friendly Recipes)

The linky is at the bottom.

This week we started the unit Mm: Moon. We learned a little bit about the moon on Monday. The girls and I talked about how the moon reflects the light of the sun, just like we are to reflect the light of Jesus. We learned that the moon is made of rock and when the astronauts walked on the moon they were walking in inches of dust. We also talked a little about the craters on the moon. So I was thrilled when I saw a recipe for Moon Cake in the My Father's World message board archives. The person who shared it was not sure where the recipe came from, so I am also not sure where the credit should go. If I find out I will update this post. Please, if you know to whom credit should be given, please let me know.
Now, onto the recipe!

Tabitha read the ingredients (and instructions) as usual while I gathered them.

They were really excited to make this cake.

Here are the ingredients:

1 1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
4 T. cocoa

1 tsp. baking soda
5 T melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
1 T. vinegar
1 c. milk
3/4 c. miniature marshmallows

First we made the "Moon Sand"

We combined the flour, brown sugar, sugar, salt and cocoa in a pie plate (because I don't have a 9 inch round cake pan).

I taught the girls something new this week. I had never discussed leveling the dry ingredients, so we practiced on the flour and cocoa.

Then we combined by stirring. Not an easy thing to do in the pie plate.

Then we made 3 craters: 1 large, 1 medium, 1 small.

These ingredients are to go in the craters:

We melted the butter in the microwave.

I showed the girls how to level the baking soda on the box.

The melted butter is added to the large crater.

The baking soda is added to the medium crater.

And the vanilla is added to the small crater.

Unfortunately the butter leaked over to the baking soda and the vanilla leaked a bit too. It wasn't a bit deal though and the girls liked the streams they made.

The vinegar is then added to the baking soda.

The girls loved it!

Then, after it stopped foaming, we added the milk...

and stirred it all together to make moon mud. The girls were very observant and mentioned that there wouldn't be any moon mud on the moon. Though they did try to come up with a way to make it happen.

Then we added the moon rocks (I mean marshmallows).

While the cake was baking, I asked the girls what they thought would happen to the marshmallows. Did they think they would form craters? Did they think they would sink in? Did they think they would still be able to see the marshmallows? The girls came up with some ideas in their journals (we got the idea because they love Sid the Science Kid).

We discovered that the marshmallows were still visible, though flattened and browned.