The Chocolate Maths Cake

Top Ender gets homework on a Thursday night, homework that is due in the following Tuesday, but can be handed in before. The homework is the normal sort that you'd expect a nine/ten year old to have. A bit of literacy (this week it was write a poem) and a bit of Maths. This week Top Ender was required to measure items around the home using a tape measure or a ruler, weighing scales and a measuring jug. The last line of the homework said; 

Be creative.

Be creative?! What? This is Maths! How could we be creative in Maths? Top Ender and I thought for a moment and then Top Ender started to smile, a knowing smile. She had an idea; 

"Lets make a cake Mum. We can weigh the flour and the sugar and the butter and the eggs, we can measure the size of the cake pan, we can check the number of ml in the milk and the baking powder and the cocoa powder!"

It was a brilliant idea, so we decided to make a Maths cake, one that Top Ender could measure and hopefully bribe her teachers with for a good grade come Monday. And here it is, our Chocolate Maths Cake.

With a cake that beautiful looking, I knew we had to share our recipe, so here it is. Why not make it with your children to get them practise their Maths skills?

Ingredients

For the cake

115g Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

115g Self Raising Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Cocoa Powder

115g Butter

125ml Milk

100g Chocolate Chips

For the icing

75g Icing Sugar

1 tsp Cocoa Powder

Milk as needed
Decorations for the top of the cake

Method

Cream together the caster sugar and eggs.

Add the Flour, Baking Powder and Cocoa Powder and mix well.

Add the milk and the butter to a small saucepan, melt the butter, but do not allow the milk to boil. Stir well.

Add the milk and butter mixture to the other ingredients and mix well.

Fold in the Chocolate chips.

Divide the mixture between two greased cake pans, or make a dozen fairy cakes (easier to give to a teacher!) and one large cake (to eat at tea with your family).

Cook in the oven at gas mark 4 for twenty minutes if you're making fairy cakes, 35-40 minutes if you're making the large cakes.

Allow to cool.

Once cool, if you're clever then use a butter-cream icing to make beautiful swirly icing on top of the cakes or if you're like me and when you ice the top of a cake it looks like something that the top of a cake shouldn't (see here, but don't laugh okay!) then mix together the icing sugar, cocoa powder and milk to create a thick icing to spoon on to the top of each fairy cake.

For the large cakes, spoon the icing on to make it all drippy and delicious before decorating with coloured chocolate beans (yes, I mean Smarties or similar!) or chocolate stars and sprinkles like we did.

And that's it, now you get to eat it, or give it to your Maths teacher...