Vanilla Cupcakes / Kiwi Baker - Home Economics

Vanilla Cupcakes

Last week for Home Economics, we made some Vanilla Cupcakes and it was a part of our assessment. We were in the same group but the teacher added another person into the group so that made us a group of five while the others were only in a group of four. I was also the leader of the group. 

To be able to manage our time, I have assigned some people from my group to get some certain Ingredients and to do some certain methods. Here is the list of our group and the things that we had to do:

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 method 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 method 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

Once the lesson finished, I got to taste the cupcake. The taste of the icing was a little too sweet but the cake had a really balanced taste to it. It wasn't too sweet nor tasteless. The cupcake was on the crunchier side which I liked. I also got a feedback from my mum who was my stake holder.

She said that the icing was also a bit sweet but the cupcake itself tasted really good.  

Ingredients:

• 125g margarine/ butter
• 3/4 c sugar ( if you don't have a 3/4 cup, just use the 1/4 cup one three times or use the 1/2 and 1/4 cup one)
• 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.

Heroes and Villains Timeline - Power to the People

In Hurumanu 6, we have been focusing on researching a person that is a real hero or villain. I chose Barack Obama and here is the timeline that I made using Piktochart:

Here is a poster that I made about Kate Sheppard. I used Canva.:

PE Questions

Hi guys, for today’s blog post, I’m going to be answering some Questions the was given to us in class. There are only 3 questions plus an extra one for Homework. Also, I have decided to include the Homework because I think it’s way easier. Anyway, enough with the talking and here are the questions:

PE Questions 

1. Who invented Basketball and what was his occupation?

James Naismith and he was a Teacher, Professor and a Coach.

2. Where and when did the word marathon originate?

It originated from Ancient Greece in 490BC.

3. Who designed the Modern Olympics?

Baron Pierre de Coubertin

HOMEWORK:

This year the Olympics have been postponed, which other Olympics have been cancelled?

Since the opening of the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, the international sports competition has only been canceled three times: once during World War I (1916) and twice during World War II (1940, 1944)

Mini Pastry Savouries - Home Economics

Mini Pastry Savouries 

Last Friday for Home Economics, we made some Mini Pastry Savouries. It was very easy to make and also so yummy. Our one needed 3 eggs to make so if you ever run out of the egg mixture, just make another mixture with the same ingredients. The end product looked and tasted so delicious. The egg in the inside was so chewy and tasty as well. The outside part was so crispy and flaky which I liked. 

1/2 sheet pre rolled pastry

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. Carefully pour egg mixture into each case. Make sure you don't spill any.
6. Bake at 200 Celsius for 8-10 minutes.
7. Let it cool and enjoy it.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

How to make a Name Tag? - Creative Manufacturing

How to make a Name Tag

So for today’s blog post, I’m going to be telling you guys How to make a Name Tag. We’ve been focusing on how to make these for 8 weeks now and have finally finished on making it. I’m going to show you what my one looks like by the end of this Blog.

1. The first thing that you have to do is to get a piece if Aluminium and cut it. The width of it must be 45 cm and the length should be about 20 cm. 
2. Once you’ve finished cutting it, just get a file and file the sides of the Aluminium. You could file the corners of it to make a shape or just leave it as it is. If you want, you could also get a sandpaper and sand along the sides of the Aluminium
3. After you have done that, you will now need a ruler and find a place where you can drill the hole. You could either drill it on one of the corners of the Aluminium or the middle of the side. After you’ve marked it, carefully drill a hole on it. Make sure it’s on the mark that you’ve made.
4. The next thing that you need to do is to Polish. You need to use a buffing machine for that. The First thing that you do is to put a face shield on to protect your face in case the Aluminium flies off of your hand. Then you need something to hold your Aluminium with because it gets hot because of the Polisher. Then you put a clay polish onto the buffing wheel then you start polishing. I suggest that you keep on moving the Aluminium up and down while polishing it so that it would be much easier and quicker.
5. The last and final thing that you need to do is to Nail stamp some letters on it. You could stamp any letters you want on it. It could be your name, your initials or just a letter. 

Here is a photo of the things that we used to make it with:   

             

Here is what my one looks like:

         

Pikelets - Home Economics

Pikelets 

Hi guys, this Blog post is going to be about Pikelets that we cooked last week. Pikelets are similar to Pancakes, they are cooked the same but the size and texture are different. I would say that the Pikelets are much thicker and softer that the Pancake due to the fact that you have to whisk it till it's thick and pale. We got to taste the first Pikelets that we made before we proceeded on cooking the rest of the mixture. The taste of it was balanced and the texture was really soft and chewy. Anyways, here are the Ingredients and the steps on how to make Pikelets. 

Ingredients:

1 c Plain Flour 

1 t Baking Powder 

1/4 t Salt 

1 Egg 

1/4 c Sugar 

3/4 c Milk 

Method:

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt into a big bowl. In an smaller bowl, beat the egg and sugar with a whisk until it turns thick and pale. I suggest that you do this first because it's gonna take a while. Now once the egg mixture turns thick and pale, add in the dry ingredients. Add the milk in as well but pour in on the side of the bowl and not on the middle, because all the air bubbles that are in the egg mixture will disappear and the finish product won't be as fluffy as it should be. Once you've added all the ingredients together, gently mix it until it's all combined.

Now, it's time to cook. Gently heat a non stick frying pan over medium heat and add or brush with a little melted butter. Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture from the point of the spoon onto the surface. When bubbles start to burst on the top of the pikelets, turn them over and let the other side cook until golden. Once you've finished cooking all of it, place them on a cooling rack. Now you're all done. You could put some Nutella or some kind of jam on top of it if you want to.

Here are some photos while making it and also the finish product:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate Chip Cookie 

Ingredients :

1/2 cup of White Sugar 

1/2 cup of Brown Sugar 

1 Egg

1 tsp of Vanilla Essence 

1 1/2 cups of Flour 

Pinch of Salt 

1/2 tsp of Baking Powder 

1/2 cup of Chocolate Chips 

Method :

Cream the butter until it's soft and fluffy then add both Sugars in and start creaming together.

 

Beat the egg then add the Vanilla Essence. Once their both mixed in, add it in with the Dry ingredients. Add the Chocolate Chips in as well.You could sift the Dry Ingredients together if you want.

  

 

After all of that, roll them into 12 even sized balls and make sure that it's not too wet. Once your done rolling them, put them onto the baking pan and spread them out evenly.

After that, put them in the Oven and let them cook for 10 - 15 minutes. The temperature should be set on 180 Celsius and on Bake. In the recipe, it says to only bake it for 8 - 10 minutes. But we changed the cooking time because this recipe could make up to 15 cookies, and we only made 12 so that means it's much bigger that usual.  Here are some pictures of it while cooking. 

   <--Here is what the finish product looks like -->

So by the end of the lesson, we got to taste one of the cookies that we made. It tasted so delicious. It was crispy on the outside and soft in the inside. It was very chewy as well. The sweetness of it was balanced and every bite that you take will make you want more. I think it was one of the easiest food that we made in Home Economics and will definitely make some more in the future.  

Name tag - Creative Manufacturing

Creative Manufacturing

For Creative Manufacturing, we have been focusing on making a Name Tag. We have been planning on making this since Last and there are just a little bit more things for us to be finally finished. The things that I have to do is to Nail Punch it on the hole, Polish it and to Stamp it. 

Here is my work along with my other friends work:

My one is the top one.

Here is what it looks like after the Polishing and Stamping it.:

Lock down Reflection

Hi guys, so today was my first day coming back to school after moving to level 2. For this blog post, I'm going to be talking about the interesting things that I did during lock down. I didn't really do that much things so this will be short.

For the first few weeks of lock down, I was just pretty much relaxing and also helping around the house. I was doing a lot of chores and didn't really do that much school work. During those weeks, I tried making a type of Coffee called Dalgona Coffee. It was really popular around the internet and I wanted to try it out. I looked up the Ingredients and the Method on how to do it correctly. I actually posted it here on my blog on how to do it so if you would like to try making one, just go and have a look at the blog post that I made. I still remember the first time I did it and I surprisingly did not fail. It was not as fluffy compared to the ones that you could find on the internet because I just used a Whisk instead of an Electric Mixer.

Anyways, for the few weeks before we went back to school was when I started to do some school works and going to the catch ups. I wasn't really able to finish a lot of school works because I could sometimes get easily distracted but I still managed to get some done.

Well that was what I pretty much did during lock down. Anyways, thank you guys for reading this Blog post. Bye and remember to stay safe!

Late Post!

Chocolate Chip Muffins - Home Economics

Chocolate Chip Muffins 

Hi guys, for last week's lesson in cooking, we made some Chocolate Chip Muffins. I'm going to talk about this now because I don't want to interrupt you while reading this post. So what happened was while we were mixing the liquid ingredients together, we were suppose to melt the butter until it was like a liquid. So then we microwaved it but I didn't really saw what it looked like after coming out of the Oven because I was focused on doing something else. Once I was finished on what I was doing, I finally had the time to check on them and see if they needed some help. But when I saw the mixture, the butter still looked kind of kind of fluffy and thick. I told them to microwave if for a little bit because the butter was not melted at all but, there was one problem. The egg was already in the mixture and if we put the mixture in the microwave for a bit too long, the egg will start cooking. So. we had to start the whole entire process. We were keep on telling each other that we could do it because at that time, almost every group was ready to put their one in the Oven. We were doing it as fast as we could, but was making sure that we do it right. In the end, we were able to finish baking the Muffins on time. By the way, I couldn't take as much photos because we were so busy. 

Ingredients:

2 c of Self Raising Flour 
1/2 t of Salt 
1/2 c of Caster Sugar 
1/2 c Chocolate Bits 
100g of Butter 
1 c of Milk 
1 Egg
1 c of Mashed Banana (2-3)
Extra Ingredient given - 1 t of Vanilla Essence 

Method:

Mix Flour, Salt, Caster sugar & Chocolate bits in a bowl.

In a separate bowl melt butter then add milk, and egg beat to combine.

Mash & measure the bananas and add to liquid ingredients. 

Tip liquid mixture into dry ingredients. Fold Carefully. do not over mix.

Carefully spoon muffin batter into prepared muffin tins. ( line with paper muffin cases)

Optional topping: Mix 1 T sugar & 1/2 t  Cinnamon and sprinkle over top of muffins. Drop some Chocolate bits on each.

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.


Here is the before and after photos: