Cooking is fun and it’s a great way to make a tasty snack. But have you ever thought about what’s going on when you cook something? Try making some cupcakes, and you’ll pick up a thing or two about chemistry.
Safety: This activity requires a hot oven. Ask an adult for assistance. When dealing with food, use clean hands and clean equipment. Ensure cupcake batter is cooked before eating.
First aid: If you burn yourself, put the burn under cool, running water for 20 minutes.
Mix the self-raising flour and sugar together, then add the milk, melted butter, eggs and vanilla essence.
Spoon the mixture into half of the patty pans, leaving the other half empty.
The cupcakes rise due to a chemical reaction. The self-raising flour contains a solid acid and base. When the mixture is wet, the acid and base react to form carbon dioxide gas. The gas bubbles cause the cupcakes to rise. Another reaction, called the Maillard reaction occurs at the same time resulting in the browning of the cupcakes.
Chemical reactions are affected by temperature. By raising the temperature, chemical reactions that cause the rising and browning of cupcakes occur at a faster rate. By lowering the temperature, these reactions don’t occur fast enough, resulting in uncooked cupcakes.
Using temperature to control chemical reactions in food is at the core of cooking. Cooking at higher temperatures cooks food faster, but might burn the food or result in unwanted flavours.
Many chemical processes used in industry, such as extracting some metals from ores, won’t happen at all unless high temperatures are used.
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11 April, 2021 at 8:07 pm
Its a good information about cupcakes.I agree from this double helix chemistry involving in cupcakes.
9 November, 2022 at 2:46 am
This helped me pass science class thanks