The end of the Grade 8 term is rapidly descending and our final cooking lab is upon us. The Pièce de résistance is Chocolate Quinoa Cake (cupcakes, rather). Just to keep things confusing: the recipe is a "cake", I've described it as more like "brownies", but we're making individual portions. This has upset some students who haven't quite caught onto my somewhat random nature.
I literally lost sleep over this one. Last night, after finally falling asleep through the Halloween fireworks and accompanying sirens, I awoke around 2 a. m. Quite seriously awoke. Awoke enough that getting out of bed was the only cure. The main problem? How in the heck was I going to get through a full demo of this lab in 35 minutes, when the product had an estimated bake time of 20 - 25 minutes? (It's an estimate because when I tried the recipe I made a batch in a cake pan, and not in a cupcake pan. Silly me.) Not to mention the quinoa needed a cooking and setting time of 20 minutes, plus a spin in the blender - and I wasn't quite convinced that I have working blenders.
By morning, with a few more hours of sleep behind me, I came to a sensible solution. Precook the quinoa before class. And choose a VERY sensible assistant chef.
The results of the demo were encouraging - the two day lab should be well timed, and the product will definitely need between 15 and 20 minutes to bake (depending on the peculiarities of the ovens). BUT... by Thursday, each unit should be able to walk out munching on something chocolatey and yummy. Clean up will probably be our major stumbling block... but then the popcorn ball lab proved that you can't predict where your challenges will occur - just that you may as well be prepared for anything ;-)
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