kayb85

From an unschooling perspective, how would you deal with this? My
daughter is 8 1/2 years old and is trying to create her own recipe
for a baking contest. She baked her cake tonight and she's planning
on decorating it and letting us taste it tomorrow. Here are the
ingredients she used:

2 eggs
6 oz. pack of strawberry jello
one box of vanilla cake mix
half a cup of butter
1 cup of milk
half a tablespoon of baking powder
half a cup of sugar
half a cup of water
2 cups of flour

So...If I taste this and it's not that good, do I tell her the truth?
(I'm inclined to think I should.) Do I point out to her that the
cake mix already contains flour and other ingredients so she wouldn't
have had to add them again? Or do I not tell her and let her figure
it out on her own?

Thanks,
Sheila

Sharon Rudd

She already baked it? Actually it probably will be
pretty good! And a pretty pink color. Bet a cream
cheese icing would go well with it.

Sharon of the Swamp

--- kayb85 <sheran@...> wrote:
> From an unschooling perspective, how would you deal
> with this? My
> daughter is 8 1/2 years old and is trying to create
> her own recipe
> for a baking contest. She baked her cake tonight
> and she's planning
> on decorating it and letting us taste it tomorrow.
> Here are the
> ingredients she used:
>
> 2 eggs
> 6 oz. pack of strawberry jello
> one box of vanilla cake mix
> half a cup of butter
> 1 cup of milk
> half a tablespoon of baking powder
> half a cup of sugar
> half a cup of water
> 2 cups of flour
>
> So...If I taste this and it's not that good, do I
> tell her the truth?
> (I'm inclined to think I should.) Do I point out to
> her that the
> cake mix already contains flour and other
> ingredients so she wouldn't
> have had to add them again? Or do I not tell her
> and let her figure
> it out on her own?
>
> Thanks,
> Sheila
>
>


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Pat Cald...

<snip>
>So...If I taste this and it's not that good, do I tell her the truth?
>(I'm inclined to think I should.) Do I point out to her that the
>cake mix already contains flour and other ingredients so she wouldn't
>have had to add them again? Or do I not tell her and let her figure
>it out on her own?
>
>Thanks,
>Sheila

If it was my 10 year old daughter, I would ask her what she thought of her cake before I gave her me opinion. If she liked it, I would tend to go along with her evaluation. If she didn't, I would still find something *honestly* positive to say about either the cake or how she created it or something. If she asked a specific question I would answer that honestly.

What does your daughter like about the idea of a contest? Where did she get the idea to create a new recipe?

I think it would be reasonable to explain that it is common for cooks to make a recipe a few times changing the ingredients a little to see what the result is. Maybe she would enjoy this process with you.

I used to just let Virginia make her own cakes thinking she could learn from the process on her own. Unfortunately she was too young to do this and what she learned was the process was too difficult and she couldn't do it well. Realizing she had trouble following the step-by-step directions, this year we set up little cooking lessons. I put a few steps on a small chalk board and she completed them and checked them off. Then I would add more and so on. She had some wonderful successes and became very interested in cooking for a while. Now she thinks of herself as quite a good cook which is what I would like her to think.

Pat


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