Mad Scientists

Yesterday the girls announced they wanted to bake.  And I wasn't needed, thank you very much. In a whirlwind of take charge attitude, Elizabeth got out my best Polish Pottery bowls, found the sugars, flour, poured some water into a glass, found some spoons and they proceeded to pour - let me rephrase - dump things into the bowls.  Adelaide said she was making cupcakes, Elizabeth cookies.  I suggested eggs. "Yes, eggs!"  I suggested butter.  "Yes, butter!" I suggested baking powder. "Yeah, ok."  Adelaide went right for the aprons.

But for the rest they told me to step aside.  They don't use a recipe, they said they make their own recipe. Now, I know baking requires science, the chemistry of ingredients, precision.  Not these girls.

They were mad scientists, pouring things into the bowls, mixing, no regard to proportion, just pour and stir till it looks right. I was thankful I had all the ingredients they were asking for.  Brown sugar was preferred over white sugar but they used both.  Serving spoons used for scooping and measuring and stirring.




I was a little aghast at their process - butter added very last, for instance.  But I was just an observer (and mess cleaner upper.)  They didn't want or need my help.

They tasted

and tested for consistency - Elizabeth was making cookies, she needed a firm dough!

Adelaide was making cupcakes. I did suggest another flavor....cocoa. They thought they were getting hot chocolate mix and were a bit surprised at the taste of plain cocoa.  I told them it doesn't taste good till you add it to the sugar so they spooned and spooned some in....again, no measuring, just scoops of cocoa.

Elizabeth decided she liked the way the batter looked when the cocoa was half mixed, a marbled effect and added some chocolate chips to her cookies.

Adelaide knows exactly what she wants and you shouldn't get in her way.  Half of the pan's cupcakes would be chocolate, half white. THIS half chocolate and THAT half white.  She had enough batter for a dozen cupcakes.
     The most surprising thing to me was these creations were truly good!  The cupcakes were tender, light, (I explained the baking powder was so they didn't end up with hockey pucks and then had to explain what a hockey puck was.) and delicious.  Truly!  This isn't grandma talking.  Elizabeth's cookies were soft and pillowy. No one was more surprised than I was.  They were just confident their creations would be wonderful and they were right!

They spent the rest of the afternoon writing stories.  Elizabeth was working on a 'newspaper.' She used the computer, changing fonts, colors, and could print on her own.

Adelaide fell in love with the manual typewriter Friend Harry is letting her use and spent the rest of the afternoon - after a nice two hour nap - working on a story. 

She is always working on a story, either in her head or writing it down.  The typewriter was a hit.