Thursday 11 July 2013

History project: Make an Egyptian pyramid with cake!

My girls have seen all the sugar cube pyramids around and were so disappointed that they couldn't eat them - most are glued together with glue but even using icing sugar there is too much sugar to eat it.  So we came up with this idea...
 

 

Make a pyramid out of cake!

This is how we made ours...

You will need:

For the cake...
  • A baking tray
  • A mixing bowl
  • 375g butter
  • 375g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 375g plain flour
  • 1 teaspoon of baking powder
  • yellow food colouring (optional)

Method:
  1. Pre-heat oven to 180c
  2. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl until it goes a light colour.
  3. Add the eggs one at a time mixing briskly (we used an electric mixer)
  4. Add the flour, baking powder and the food colouring (if you are adding food colouring)
  5. Spread your cake mixture across the baking tray like this...



Then put it in the oven for 15 minutes or until it is a light brown on top like this...
 
 
 
 
When it's completely cooled down cut into squares...
 
 
 
Then make your edible glue AKA icing!  We filled a cup with icing sugar and then added water teaspoon by teaspoon until we found the right consistency (thick but still runny).
 
 
 
We started our pyramid with a 6x6 base filled in so 36 squares of cake.  Then we added a layer of icing, carefully so not to break the cake.
 
 
Then we build on top of that a 5x5 square of 25 squares of cake then added another layer of icing on top of them...
 
 
Then we added a 4x4 square of 16 squares of cake then, (yes, you've got it) more icing on top of that.
 
 
Then 3x3 of 9 squares on top of that, more icing then...
 
 
 2x2 of 4 squares a dab of more icing on top then...
 
 
The very last one on top!  Of course the extra squares of cake are for eating and maybe a few for the little ones to make mini pyramids of there own. 


 
 
We had great fun.  I hope you do too!
 
 
What else can be learnt:
 
Maths - times tables,
square numbers
counting
 
Science - 
That cakes are an irreversible change unlike things like ice that are reversible (they can be melted and then frozen again,
The viscosity of the icing
Structures - What would happen if we tried to make it with a hole in the middle.  What materials would make a stronger pyramid.

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