Song and Poem
Hello wonderful Juniors again! Welcome to all things words and baking for the second round! Are you up for your next set of challenges? Let’s jump right in and get started for the week. To begin with, here is your song and poem to review.
Song: Your A Grand Old Flag
Poem:
If You Were Busy Being Kind
By R. Foreman
If you were busy being good,
And doing just the best you could,
You’d not have time to blame some man
Who’s doing just the best he can.
Book Club
Keep reading The Penderwicks: A summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, by Jeanne Birdsall. If my calculations are correct, you have three more weeks to read this book. So grab some popcorn, find a blanket and get some cozy reading going!
Creative Spot
Alright, now that we have all of our other business taken care of, lets jump right in to all things word and baking!
Words, words, words, words, words and more words. Let’s get our word juices going this week with another set of word puzzles. However, this time in our Rebus’s we will be using words in our riddles, not just pictures and letters. Watch this following video to better understand how to decode each riddle.
1: Rebus
Alright, time for you to give it a shot. I thought it might be kind of fun to do some that could get us in the mood for our next holiday!
Did you get any of them? Some of them were a little tricky weren’t they. Be sure to grab your journal. Find your Rebus section from last time. Number your paper 1-9 and write down what you think the answers are. Bring them to class and we will compare. Also, bonus van buck if you can come up with your OWN Thanksgiving Rebus!
Alright, now on to our next thing.
2: Vocabulary words
Are you ready for more?
Vocabulary Word Instructions:
Step 1: Read through each word and their definitions. Make sure you can say each word correctly.
Step 2: Copy the word into google and ask for a pronunciation if you need one.
Step 3: Grab your Vangaurd journal and find a section where you can keep ALL of your new vocabulary words for the year. Write down each word AND their definitions.
Step 4: After you have written each word and their definition in your journal, write (in the same journal on the same page as your definitions) a sentence for each word.
Step 5: Grab and index card or a plain piece of paper. Write down each work. Put the piece of paper on the fridge or somewhere you can see it OFTEN. Make it a point to use each word at least THREE times a day. Each time you use a word, put a little check mark next to it so you can keep track.
| Discombobulated | the state of becoming confused |
| Magnanimous | very generous or forgiving, especially to a rival or less powerful person |
| Flabbergasted | greatly surprised or astonished |
3: Unjournaling
Now that you have awakened your brain with some riddles and added to it some new fun words, let’s dive into our unjournaling book. This week I want you to complete ONE writing prompt from your unjournaling book, HOWEVER I would like you to choose between #18, #24, and #30. Write your response in your vanguard journal and be sure to bring it to class!
Finally, the last activity for our WORDS WORDS WORDS section, something new.
4: Free Write
Be Honest, How many of you thought of this when you read the words, “something new?”
I know I did! Ha ha ha. Words can stir thoughts and feelings inside of us. Sometimes they are warm and fuzzy thoughts and feelings, sometimes they are TERRIFYING thoughts and feelings and sometimes they fall somewhere in-between. For some of you, when you read “FREE WRITE” you may have felt something… unpleasant. That is probably because writing has been created to be something unpleasant in your heart and mind. If that is you, I’m wondering why. Has writing been hard? Has writing been forced? Or did someone tease you about your writing? Or maybe ideas just don’t come easily. I think that is why MOST people do not enjoy writing. So, this week, altough I am having you write something, I’m not going to tell you what you have to write about NOR am I going to tell you what type of writing it must be. It can be a poem. It can be a story. It can be a nursery rhyme. It can be a journal entry or it can be an essay. You choose. It must have at least seven sentences. Each of these sentences must start with a capital and end with some sort of puncuation mark. Write it in your vanguard notebook and bring it to class, prepared to share it.
All Things Baking
Phew! Good job with all those word work outs and writing adventure. Now let’s put our pens to the side and pick up our spoons! This week you are going to bake cupcakes!
Making great cupcakes is a great skill to have up your sleeve. Why? Because there are so many FUN things you can do with cupcakes. With permission from your mom, hope on pinterest and type in “fun cupcakes” and see what comes up. There are some AMAZING cupcakes out there. If you could decorate a cupcake, what would YOU do?
Cupcake decorating takes a bit of skill, especially if there is piping involved. Piping means to put a decorative line or pattern on a cake or similar dish using icing, whipped cream, etc. So basically when you apply icing in a way that doesn’t require slapping it on with a knife or spatula. Here’s a fun little video with all sorts of fun cupcakes that use a variety of piping.
Piping usually requires something called a “piping TIP.” Defintion from on line: “A piping tips is a cone-shaped nozzle used with a piping bag to create decorative shapes with frosting. Piping tips come in ALL sorts of shaes and sizes. Each design creates its own specific texture or effect, such as writing, ruffles, stars, leaves, or borders.
Round tips are used for writing, outlining, and creatigd dots or beads.
Star tips can be open or closed and are used for creating stars, rosettes and ruffles.
Petal tims are used to create realistic looking petals and ruffles.
Leaf tips have like a v shaped opening that helps create detailed leaves.
Specialty tips are a catch-all category for tips with unique designs, like grass, basketweave, etc.”
There literally are so many tips!!! And they are so fun to use. But they do require some techique. Watch the following videos. We will be practicing some of these techniques this week so pay close attention.
What do you think? Look like fun?
To be ready for class, each of you will need to bring your own batch of cupcakes. Please use the recipe below for your cupcakes. No box cupcakes on my watch! And besides this recipe is easy to follow and tastes yummy! I couldn’t help but lick my spoon before putting it into the dishwashers. One of earths little delights I tell you! This recipe will also go well with the way we will be decorating our cupcakes.
You will notice that it doesn’t have weight measurements. Some recipes just don’t come with them. When that is the case, follow these rules of thumb: keep ALL ingredients at ROOM temperature. That means you will need to plan ahead of time when you will be baking. Next, when measuring the flour, take your measuring cup and “fluff” your flour like this before you measure it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdgJkooeWG8
Remember to alternate your liquid and dry ingredients when you combined them into your creamed butter, sugar and egg mixture. Don’t just DUMP all the dry into your beautiful fluffy egg, sugar and butter. Start with the flour, mix. Then add a little wet and mix. Then add more a little more flour. Mix. Wet mix. End with the remaining flour and ONLY MIX UNTIL FLOUR MIXES IN. DO NOT KEEP MIXING!!!!! Your cupcakes will either have a giagantic dome on the top OR more likely, they will fall and cave in. Bummer.
Finally, remember to freeze your cupcakes with the cupcake liner ON! I place them on a cookie sheet. Freeze them for 30 minutes and then place them in a gallon size bag. You will need two. You can store cupcakes this way for a few months! When you take them out of your freezer to bring them to class, take them OUT OF THE BAG while still frozen and place them BACK INTO THE CUPCAKE PANS. Do NOT cover them. Do NOT eave them in the bag to thaw! They will stick to the top of the bag and get slimmy. YUCK! I have given most of your moms 24 cupcake liners. If not, no worries. They will be coming soon.
Spice Cake:
2 1/4 cups All purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cloves (fun fact, put this on your tongue and it will go numb for a minute)
3/4 cup unsalted butter ROOM TEMPERATURE
1 1/2 cups brown sugar PACKED
3 large eggs ROOM TEMPERATURE
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup applesauce (unsweetened if you have it, but if not sweetened will work)
Preheat oven to 350. Line cupcake pan with liners. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, spices, and salt until well combined and set aside. Using a mixer, cream butter and brown sugar on med-high until pale and fluffy (about 3 min). Reduce speed and add eggs one at a time until fully incorporated after each addition. Add vanilla. Next alternate adding flour mixtureand applesauce, beginning and ending with flour (3 additions of flour and 2 of the applesauce). Fully incorporate after each addition but once incorporated DO NOT KEEP MIXING! Stop… and lick your beater… yummm. Okay, final step, fill cupcake liners about 2/3s full. This means you will likely have EXTRA batter. DO NOT ADD IT TO THE FILLED LINERS. Either grab another cupcake pan, fill it with liners and fill those, or release the extra batter to a higher purpose… aka, your cat. JUST KIDDING! Don’t do that. It will probably give them tummy troubles and your mom will text me angry words! Just throw it away.
Alright, bake for 18 minutes and check. Remember, look first. Does it look like it has the same texture all across the top or does it look like its two different textures? If so, it’s not done. If its ONE texture, carefully but lightly tap the top. Did it sink? If not, grab a toothpick or squir and see if it comes out with just a few little crumbs. That’s what you want. Completly clean means it’s a little over cooked. If Goopy and wet, leave it in for another 3-5 min then check again.
Take them out of the over. Let them sit for 10 min. Put them on a cooling rack or clean towel on the counter until COMPLETELY then place them in the freezer for 30 min. After 30 minutes, remove them and place them bottom side down in two or so gallon size freezer bags and place them back in the fridge!
Ta-da! Look at you go. What an amazing baker you are! Hope you had a great time and that your home smells AMAZING.
For Thursday, don’t forget your vanguard notebook, your cupcakes and an apron. Also, have your mom check telegram for what tips to bring. If you don’t have any, no worries. I will have extras. See ya!
