Home Economics: Cupcakes!

During Friday on HEC, we made special cupcakes. These cupcakes were special because it was like playing tricks with your mind, what I meant by that is. For example, you would think that an orange coloured candy would taste like orange? Although, it actually tastes like raspberry. Anyways during the making of the cupcakes, my group and I had to think of a colour and a flavour that wouldn't match the colour. We chose the icing to be the colour blue, and taste like strawberry cream.

Afterwards, we had to decorate our three cupcakes and they had to be all similar. But not the same as your group members. I found it satisfying putting the icing on the cupcakes, but it was also a little difficult to make it smooth. When finished I had the idea of putting the letter v on the cupcake that represents the first letter of my name, I used string-like liquorice to make out the letter and then used m&ms to make a diamond shape around it. Then we were given some chocolate sprinkles to put in our cupcakes. The finished product tasted really good, and the icing tasted like strawberry. The cupcake itself was really fluffy the liquorice made it a bit chewy. Anyways, here is the recipe that we used as well as the directions on how to make them.

Recipe: Cup Cakes

• 125 g Margarine/ Butter
• 3/4 c Sugar
• 1 t Vanilla Essence 
• 2 eggs size 7
• 1 1/2 c Plain Flour
• 2 t Baking Powder
• 1/2 c Milk

Directions: 

1. Cream margarine in a large bowl. Use a wooden spoon. 
2. Add sugar and continue creaming until light and fluffy in texture. 
3. Add vanilla essence and beat briefly.
4. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after you have added each egg.
5. Sift flour and baking powder onto a large plate. 
6. Using a rubber scraper, scrape all the mixture off the wooden spoon. 
7. Add 1/3 sifted flour/ baking powder mix and fold in half the milk using the rubber scraper. 
8. Repeat step 7 for the next 1/3 flour mix and the rest of the milk. Do not overmix. 
9. Add the last of the flour and gently fold this into the cake batter. 
10. Carefully spoon cake batter evenly into 12 paper cases. 
11. Bake at 180oc for 7 min then turn oven to Fan Bake for a further 6-8 min

Recipe: Icing

• 50 g Margarine/ Butter.
• 100 g - 150 g Icing Sugar.
• Flavouring (Essence)

Directions: 

1. Cream together margarine, icing sugar and flavouring.
2. Spread icing onto cooled cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles if available. 

Remember: 

• To preheat oven
• Measure all ingredients accurately 
• Gently fold in flour/ baking powder (dry ingredients) alternately with the milk
• Do not over mix the cake batter
• Put the paper cases into cupcake or muffin tins before spooning in the cake batter

Pictures: Before, During and After.

Before

During

After

Home Economics - Ginger Gems!

Last Friday, during our home economics, we made ginger gems! They are like a muffin but it has a crunchy crust on the outside when we made our ginger gems, it tasted good and I really liked the crust because it tasted different from the inside. Anyways here are the ingredients and methods that we used:

Ingredients:

• 150g of butter
• 2 tsp of ground ginger
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon 
• 2 Tbsp of golden syrup
• 1 egg
• 2 cups of standard flour
• 1/2 tsp of baking powder
• 1 tsp of baking powder
• 1/2 cup of milk 

Direction:

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees( Fan bake). Place the gem iron (Muffin Tins) in the oven to heat.
2. Cream 100g of the butter with sugar, ginger, and cinnamon.
3. Beat in golden syrup and egg, adding a tablespoon or two flour to prevent curding.
4. Sift flour and baking powder.
5. Dissolve baking soda in the milk. Mix flour into butter mixture alternately with the milk.
6. Remove gem iron from the oven and put it on the wooden board.
7. Add a half teaspoon of remaining butter for each mould or hallow. It will Zizzle.
8. Fill moulds with batter, bake for 15 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
9. Cool slightly then remove the gems to cool on a wire rack, and enjoy your ginger gems!

Hurumanu 3 - Chemicals and Chaos: Mount Vesuvius!

This week on chaos, we have been working on a newspaper which is about an eruption from Mount Vesuvius. The most affected by this eruption was the City of Pompeii, this eruption was a very long time ago. Anyways we had to make a newspaper talking about what happened during the eruption, etc. Here is the newspaper that I made talking about the Mount Vesuvius eruption.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YDgd3RmRWBLyJV1Gyw16gRyqGv0iRdMclzK0zw3MQcA/edit#

Chromatography Experiment!

Separating colours by pigments: 

Aim: To separate colours by pigments.

Hypothesis: I think that the colours will go up and show different colours, and I think that brighter colours will show fewer colours and that darker colours will show more. 

Purple felt results: The colours spread out a lot more than the other ones, I think this happened because of the paper that we used was folded a lot shorter. Which made it absorb more water than the other ones. The colours that appeared were; Purple, pink, a bit of black and a very light blue.

Black felt results: The black felt separated into different colours very interestingly, it showed almost all the colours, the colours that appeared were: Black, yellow, grey, purple, pink, blue and orange. 

Discussion: The first experiment that we did was purple, it showed fewer colours because it was brighter. It showed; Purple, pink, black, and blue. Our second experiment which was black showed a lot more colours than the first. It showed more because it was a darker colour, it showed; Black, yellow, grey, purple, pink, blue and orange. 

Chemicals and Chaos - Evaporation Experiment!

Separating a Mixture using Evaporation:

Aim: We are trying to evaporate to separate our mixture.
Hypothesis: I think that it will turn into gas and that the copper sulfate will evaporate. I also think that we will end up getting a solid outcome.

Equipment: Copper sulfate, 250 ml beaker, heatproof mat, evaporating basin, element.

Method:

1. Set up an element.
2. Add 50ml of hot water to the beaker and place on the element.
3. Add copper sulfate to the evaporating basin until it is a quarter full.
4. Carefully, place the evaporating basin on top of the beaker.
5. Turn on the element to 8.
6. Heat the solution until most of the solvent has been evaporated and crystals of solute are forming.
7. Turn off element careful not to touch as will be hot for a long time.

Observations:

Before: Water is starting to boil and is slowly creating moist around the beaker.

During: The water is now fully boiling and the beaker is very moist, the copper sulfate is also starting to evaporate. 

After: The copper sulfate is now fully evaporated and has turned into a solid, the water is also getting less over time. Because the beaker has a small beak which is where the water escapes through.

Conclusion:

Discussion: At first the water was just starting to boil up, and was slowly creating moist around the beaker because it is starting to evaporate. Then when the water was fully boiling, the copper sulfate is also starting to evaporate. When the copper sulfate was fully evaporated it turned into a solid, and the water was also starting
Evaluation:

Stress - Hurumanu 8: Health Hurumanu!

During our health hurumanu, we had to make a DLO showing what stress is and how could it affect us. Although there were two topics to choose from, depression or stress. I chose stress since I found it more interesting to make a DLO about it. Anyways we had to answer some questions the relates to stress. Anyways here is the DLO and I hope you enjoy it!

Alaskan Tsunami - Size Comparison!

This week for our hurumanu 3, on the chaos part, we have made a bar graph about the Alaskan Tsunami. Also known as Lituya Bay Megatsunami, it is the biggest tsunami known to men. Anyways we had to compare the tsunami to famous towering landmarks, which can be seen on the graph that I have made. While making this graph, I thought about what it would be like in a situation where there is a tsunami this big. What I found new ways that the Sky Tower was about the same size as the Eiffel Tower, with only 4 meters short. Also, what would you feel if you saw a tsunami as big as the Alaskan Tsunami? Anyways here is the finished graph.

Chaos: 9/11 Disaster!

As you know I have made a blogpost about a rule for the zombie apocalypse, well when I have finished the task of making a poster. It was time to move on to making a timeline about the 9/11 incident, which occurred on September 11. The making of the timeline was very challenging since we used a site that wasn't familiar to me. It made go into my prickly zone, as it took some time to learn how I can use the site. Anyways here is the timeline, and I hope that you enjoy it.

Kindness - 10 Amazing Acts of Kindness!

Today in Health hurumanu we are studying kindness, kindness is an important role of what you are. Being kind is really good because being kind to someone else will make you feel good and happy. Anyways there are 4 dimensions in Te Whare Tepa Wha; Taha Hingeraro, Taha Tinana, Taha Wairua, and Taha Whanau. All 4 dimensions are important, but today we are going to focus on Taha Wairua (Spiritual Health). So what is Taha Wairua? Taha Wairua is focused on your life, your beliefs and values, the meaning and purpose in life. It is also connected to your culture, dreams, and passion.

Anyways, we were tasked to perform a random act of kindness for Health Hurumanu, I wrote a letter to my parents and told them how much I loved them, and how I was grateful for them for sacrificing thing to provide for us. It made me think that we should also spend more time with our family because we have a limited time, and we need to spend that time with our family.

Evaporation Task: DLO!

This week on Chemistry and Chaos, we had some tasks to do which are questions about evaporation. There is a total of 3 questions that we had to answer, the teacher also permitted us to be in groups if we wanted to. Anyways we went into a group of 3 with Axle, Christian and I. We wanted to be in a group because we wanted to finish our work faster since we didn't have that much time left. So here is the finished work.