Baking is science! Learning STEM in the kitchen

This post is sponsored by General Mills, but all opinions are my own.

Baking with my daughter has always been our favorite bonding activity! It’s more than just baking to us, it’s quality time, learning valuable skills, and fuels confidence in creativity! The kitchen is a place where science can actually be FUN! It’s like a real-life experiment in the kitchen! What happens if you use too much baking soda? Or not enough? Baking is a great STEM activity for kids of all ages! Not to mention my daughter’s egg cracking skills have gotten PRETTY good if I do say so myself!

I was so excited when I learned that the BettyLab & Barbie Dream Gap Project is working to empower young girls to participate in STEM careers! By age 5 most girls develop self-limiting beliefs about what they can achieve, this is called The Dream Gap, and Barbie is on a mission to close it! Activities to encourage confidence in STEM can start in the kitchen but can easily transfer over into other challenges later on in life.

In a society that is constantly trying to tell girls what they can’t be let’s be the voices that tell them what they CAN be!

You can now buy a special Betty Crocker™ x Barbie cake mix and Barbie Bakes cookbook now on walmart.com. When my daughter saw this cookbook she totally freaked! “How is barbie so good at baking all these things?!” She said. I made sure to tell her with hard work you can accomplish anything! Click here to purchase: https://bit.ly/3cndzGk

As you know, we are lovers of all things pink in this house so the strawberry cake mix was an instant hit. Macy’s face, when it turned pink, was priceless!

We decided to make mini bundt cakes using the cake mix and buttercream frosting recipe that is featured in the cookbook! The bundt cake pan we have can be a little tricky so making a special mix of shortening, oil, and flour did just the trick to ensure those suckers wouldn’t stick to the pan! This little trick prompted lots of questions, like why does it stick in the first place? And what does this concoction do to prevent it from sticking? So we made sure to go over all the logistics! Plus they came out PERFECT which rarely happens so I was glad that my little lesson paid off and didn’t have me looking like a fool. HA!

Macy surprised me when It came to decorating and she told me her favorite part was learning why we mix everything together. She started to get a little discouraged that they weren’t looking as good as a professional baker but I told her that practice makes perfect and as long as we did our best that’s all that really matters! Plus there’s something so sweet about little imperfect treats that your kids helped make. I’d take messy little cakes and memories over perfection any day! Plus, they turned out absolutely delicious so that’s a win in my book! Click here to purchase: https://bit.ly/3cndzGk