There are a multitude of maths skills involved in baking. Put your maths skills to the test as you bake our delicious sugar cookies! (nut free, vegetarian; gluten free option) The recipe includes:
Weighing flour, sugar and butter
Measuring with baking powder, vanilla essence and lemon juice with spoons
Counting eggs
Setting the oven temperature
Cutting out shapes
Setting the timer
Counting out sprinkles
Recipe
Ingredients
325g plain flour*
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
125g butter
150g caster sugar
2 tsp vanilla essence
1.5 tsp lemon juice
1 large egg
icing sugar to decorate
* you can also make this with gluten free flour, in which case add half a tsp of Xanthan gum
Directions
Sift together the flour, baking powder, Xanthan gum (if using), and salt.
In a separate bowl, beat together the butter, sugar, vanilla and lemon juice until creamy.
Add the egg and beat again until well combined.
Mix the wet ingredients in to the dry ingredients and knead together to make a dough.
Roll the dough together and leave to rest in the fridge for half an hour.
Pre-heat your oven to 180 C (or 160 C for a fan oven).
Roll out the dough to approx. 5mm thick, cut out shapes, and place them on a tray lined with grease proof paper.
Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes until starting to go golden brown around the edges.
Transfer to a cooling rack and leave to cool completely before decorating.
To make a simple icing, mix a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar with half a teaspoon of water at a time until you have a spreadable but not too runny consistency.
Add some sprinkles of your choice - can you make a symmetrical or repeating pattern?
You don’t need to be a scientist to take part in real research. Citizen science projects welcome people of all ages to help by counting, observing, measuring, and recording what they see around them. Here are a few inspiring ways you can get involved this year.
