For our topic (World War Two) we have learnt many new facts and done many new activities which we have enjoyed thoroughly.
One of the things we learned about was rationing. We did some tasks and then decided to do some baking that they would have done back then.
One group, the boys, choose that they would make parsnip muffins which was a copy of banana muffins. They used parsnips back then because they could not ship in bananas during the war. It was quite a good idea!
Another group (Saoirse, Livia, Grace) choose to make a chocolate vinegar cake which used a lot of sugar! It used a lot of ingredients so it needed two tins. The batter was quite liquid and the recipe said that it wouldn’t rise that much, although it rose a lot! In the war they used vinegar to react to the bicarb to mimic eggs as they didn’t have enough to go around, especially in cities.
The last group (O-Jo, Isla and Merryn) choose to make an apple sauce cake. In the war they didn’t have much fresh fruit so they had to use jars of preserved fruits. The apple sauce cake was quite big and rose a lot.
The results
In the end, all the bakes didn’t look like we expected! We were also surprised by how they tasted.
The first thing we tasted (parsnips muffins), in our opinion had a funny taste to it. We all decided that parsnips don’t belong in muffins! We thought it tasted horrible so we don’t recommend it! We all agreed that it was the worst out of the lot!
The second thing we tasted (chocolate vinegar cake) was a lot better than the muffins. We couldn’t taste the vinegar at all and we thought it tasted ok! We said that if we were in the war then we would eat it. Also, it tasted quite like a normal chocolate cake, just not as sweet.
The last thing we tasted (apple sauce cake) was all right. We could taste the apple but not as much as we thought we would. The cake was quite dense and a mouthful to eat. We thought it was ok but we would have eaten it if we were in the war.
Over all, everything was very fun to make and we enjoyed it a lot. We ranked them from favourite to least favourite:
- Chocolate vinegar cake
2. Apple sauce cake
3. Parsnip muffins
We took the leftovers home and let our families try them!
By Saoirse