Home Economics | Kiwi Baker | Vanilla Cupcakes! |

On Friday our group was tasked to make vanilla cupcakes as part of our kiwi baker. Our group contained Lars, Elisha Mae, Janel, Minseo, and I, we were all comfortable during the making of our product. We were familiar with making the cupcakes because we have made them before.  However, it looked like we did something wrong because when we started creaming the butter and added the eggs, it started to sort of change texture and made clumps of the butter. Anyway, we kept proceeding and get our work done.

When we placed the cupcakes in the oven and finished cooling, it was time to decorate it. Although there was not that much time left so we just put the icing on top swiftly, so it didn't look that nice. When we finished with the icing we tasted 1 cupcake each, the top part of the cupcake was a bit crispy but when we got to the middle part it was very fluffy.

The sweetness of it was on point, it wasn't too sweet nor really sweet. Overall the cupcake was really good, and I also got some feedback from my stakeholder which were my brothers.

All of us worked well together, and carefully did the steps as we have planned. We all communicated well as a team and finished our product on time.

Feedback from Stakeholder:
The cupcakes were really good, and not too sweet. I also liked how there was a bit of crunchiness on the cupcake but, anyway it was really good. 

Our Plan:

Vann - Vanilla Essence, Baking Powder - Method 3 - Method 10

Lars - Butter, Milk - Method 1 - Method 6 - 

Elisha Mae - Sugar - Method 2 - Method 8

Janel - Plain Flour - Method 4 - Method 7 - Method 11

Minseo - Eggs - Method 5 - Method 9 

Vann: Will get the 1 t Vanilla Essence and 2 t Baking Powder. He will also do both methods 3 and 10. 

Lars: Will get the butter and the milk. He will also do both method 1 and 6.

Elisha Mae: Will get the sugar, she will do method 2 and 8.

Janel: Will get the plain flour, she will do methods 4, 7, and 11. She will also help Minseo with the folding. 

Minseo: Will get the eggs and do method 5 as well as method 9 with Janel’s help. 

Estimated time is 30 minutes 

Ingredients:

• 125g margarine/ butter
• 1/4 c sugar
• 1 t vanilla essence
• 2 eggs (Size 7)
• 1 1/2 c plain flour
• 2 t baking powder
• 1/2 c milk

 Method:

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 in 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 over mix.
9.  Add the last of the flour and gently fold this into the cake batter.
10. Carefully spoon the cake batter evenly in the 12 paper cases.
11. baked at 180 degrees for 7 minutes then turn oven to fan bake for a further 6-8 minutes.

Hurumanu 6 | Power to the People | Winston Churchill Poster! |

This week on hurumanu 6 for activity 3 the last activity for heroes and villains. We again had to make another poster about the person we chose or a different person if we chose to. However, I once again stuck with Winston Churchill. I looked upon the internet for Winston Churchill's slogan, but there were a lot of them, although I saw one which was "You can always take one with you". So I took this text and put it in a poster, here is the final result.

You can always take one with you: https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/slogan-take-one-with-you/

Hurumanu 6 | Power to the People | Winston Churchill Poster! |

This week on hurumanu 6 on activity 2 for our heroes and villains tasks, we had to make a poster about the person who we chose to make a timeline with for our first activity (activity 1). As you know I made a timeline about Winston Churchill, we also a had an option to pick another person for the poster. But I stuck with Winston Churchill because I found him really interesting, anyway here is the poster that I have made.

Hurumanu 6 | Power to the People | Winston Churchill Timeline! |

Last week we started to make a timeline about heroes and villains, it meant that people who did good things about the world would be the heroes and the opposite of it would be the villains. I chose to make a timeline about a hero, and the person was Winston Churchill. He was born on the 30th of November, he lived at Blenheim Palace, United Kingdom. He was also an inspirational statesman, writer, speaker, and leader who led Britain to victory in the Second World War against Adolf Hitler. Anyway, I have finished the timeline for him. It talks about the major things that are about him such as; his life, who he is, how he was important, and etc. Here is the timeline!

Home Economics | Mini Pastry Savories |

On Friday we made some mini pastry savouries, it was not that hard to make. We just had to get some pastry and eggs as well as other ingredients such as ham or tomatoes. But when we finished making the mini pastry savouries we then placed it in the oven for about 8 - 10 minutes. When they finished cooling we tried one of them and it was really good, the pastry itself had a bit of crunch to in and the egg was light and fluffy. Overall it was really delicious and I might make them sometimes at home just because how simple they are.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 sheet pre-rolled pastry
• 1 egg
•  salt
• 1T Milk
• Diced Bacon

Method: 

1. Using pastry cutters, cut circles to fit patty pans. Chill in the fridge.
2. Mix: 1 egg, pinch of salt, and 1T milk.
3.  Whisk together with a fork.
4. Transfer egg mixture to a measuring cup.
5. placed some thawed peas and corn in each pastry case.
6. Carefully pour egg mixture into each case. Make sure you don't spill any.
7. Bake at 200 celsius for 8-10 minutes.
8. Let it cool and enjoy it.

Home Economics | Pikelets |

On the 12th of June, we made some pikelets. Pikelets are like mini pancakes but they are not the same, the pikelets are thicker than pancakes. It was quite easy to make, however, the main mixture was the most challenging part of the making. We had to whisk an egg with some sugar on it until it gets pale and thick. Our group took turns whisking and whisking until it finally was pale and thick, I think that it took us about 15 minutes to finish it. Anyways when we were done we cooked it in the pan with a little bit of butter on it too. When we tried first tried the pikelet, it was fluffy and was sweet with the right amount of salt on it too, but it tasted really delicious.

Ingredients:

• 1 c Plain flour
• 1 t Baking powder
• 1/8 t salt
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c sugar
• 3/4 c milk

Method:

1. Sift the baking powder and the salt in the bowl.
2. In another bowl beat the egg and sugar with a whisk until pale thick.
3. Add the egg mixture and the milk to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.
4. Gently heat a non-stick frying pan over medium heat and add or brush with a little melted butter. Drop a tablespoon of the mixture from the point of the spoon onto the surface.
5. When bubbles start to burst on the top of the pikelets. Turn them over and cook the other side until golden.
6. Place on a cooling rack.
7. Serve with a sweet or savoury topping.

 

Home Economics | Chocolate Chip Cookies |

Last week on Friday in HEC, we made some chocolate chip cookies. During the making of the cookies, we were all working together well and didn't make any mistakes. We finished quite early so we were permitted to start our blogpost about the chocolate cookies. It took about 12-13 minutes to cook the cookies in the oven, and once they were out they looked amazing and looked really appetizing. As you know the if the cookies are still hot they will be soft, but once they are cooled down they get more crispy, I took some home to give to my family members and they really enjoyed it. Anyways when I tasted the cookie it was really sweet and crispy, I also tasted a lot of the chocolate. It was really sweet but I didn't mind it because I like sweet stuff.    

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of Chelsea White Sugar
• 1/2 cup of Chelsea Soft Brown Sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 1/2 cups of flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips

Method: 

Soften the butter, and add both sugars and cream these together. Beat in the eggs and vanilla essence then mix in the dry ingredients. Roll into medium-sized balls, making sure the mixture is not too wet! Put on a well greased baking tray. They shouldn't spread too much so flatten slightly. Bake at 180 celsius for 10 - 15 minutes. 

Hurumanu 6 | People Power | Types of Governments! |

For the last few weeks, we have been learning about types of governments in our 'People Power Hurumanu'. In this topic about types of governments we are learning about; Democracy, Monarchy, Dictatorship, Communism, Totalitarianism, Oligarchy, and Anarchy. These are types of governments in different countries. Anyway, there were several tasks that were given to us to finish and then blog about it. We were able to pair up with a partner and do the tasks together, so Axle and I paired up, we have done lots of work together before starting from our primary school. We both know that we work together well and finish tasks to our best standards.

Furthermore, there was a total of 5 tasks that we had to do. The first was to define each type of government and write about how a country is run in each type of government. Then using FACKTS (Frame, Arrow, Colour, Key, Title, Scale) locate and label 5 countries of each type of Political system. For task 3 we had to find a leader of each type of Government from the past or present and add their image. For task 4 all we had to do was record every site that we to and place the links of them into our doc.

The final task was blogging our presentation, but Axle wanted to make a comic strip about all the different types of government. Although when he started he found that it would take longer than he thought so he only did one for Democracy. When I first saw it, I was impressed with how good it looked but It was unfortunate that we didn't have time to do all of them. Anyway, here is the final product.

Link to our document - Contains the sites we went on:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/12xNzIS97eENy0Pus2cf6Tun9izj7wJ6jS2gAEaoRxbY/edit

Slide 9 - Map: Slide 10 - Axle's Comic Strip

Hurumanu 7 | Table Tennis & Juggling | P.E.!

For the past few weeks in P.E., we have been doing some coordination practice with table tennis and juggling. We did things such as trying to get 20 rebounds of table tennis with the wall; it means hitting the ball off the wall and hitting it back 20 times. We also tried to do some juggling with hacky-sacks and some scarfs, although we started to do the scarfs first because it was easier since it falls down slower than the hacky-sacks. I had some minor difficulties with the juggling and it took some time before I managed to ger to the hacky-sacks. We also learned how to properly hold the table tennis rackets. It was quite weird at first but I got used to it quite easily.

Anyway, we also played some friendly competitions with other people, and we played up to ten points. I think that I only won 1 game out of 6 games. I didn't really do that well and I found that the ball was hitting my fingers a lot, although I had some help and I started hitting the ball with the bat and not with my fingers. Another thing that I found while playing was I had to hit the ball lightly or it would go out off the table. So I had to hit it just enough that it would bounce on the other side of my table.

It took me some time to learn but even if I did terribly, I still managed to learn a lot of things about table tennis. It was a good experience trying a different sport other than basketball and I had lots of fun playing it.

Home Economics | Chocolate Chip Muffins |

On Friday, we made chocolate chips muffins. During the making of muffins, we first needed to make the batter, but it needed melted butter. So we prepared the butter and melted it in the microwave, although while melting the butter my friend who was in my group had some difficulties melting the butter. So he proceeded to put the butter in the milk, and since the milk was cold the butter won't continue to melt and we can't put it back in the microwave because there was egg mixed with the milk. We were falling behind other groups, so we decided to start again.

When we finished we put the mashed bananas into with the batter and mixed it, and placed it in the over with the muffin trays. Although we surprisingly caught up with the others and even finish earlier than the other groups. Anyways we really worked together really good to try to catch up to the other groups, we also learned that if we melt butter it has to be liquidy.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Self Raising Flour
•  1/2 c Caster Sugar
• 100g Butter, melted
• 1 c Milk
• 1 Egg
• 1 c smashed Banana's (2-3)

Preparation:

1. Mix Flour, Salt, Caster sugar & Chocolate bits in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl melt butter then add milk, and egg beat to combine.
3. Mash & measure the bananas and add to liquid ingredients. 
4. Tip liquid mixture into dry ingredients. Fold Carefully. do not over mix.
5.   Carefully spoon muffin batter into prepared muffin tins. ( line with paper muffin cases)
6. Optional topping: Mix 1 T sugar & 1/2 t  Cinnamon and sprinkle over top of muffins. Drop some Chocolate bits on each.
7. Bake at 220 celsius for 12-15 minutes, testing to check if the muffin is cooked. Cool for 2-3 minutes before removing from pans.