Our mise en place
The lab I chose to reflect on this month was the ponderosa cakes. I really liked the combination of banana, chocolate, and cinnamon in these and I thought it was cool that they were a mix between a muffin and a cupcake. As well as our finished product turning out good and tasting great, I thought our group worked well together on this lab. I also chose to reflect on this lab because as good as our ponderosa cakes turned out, there was still a few things that we could do differently if we ever made them again. I think our groups teamwork was good on this lab because we split up the jobs evenly and all worked on different things to complete the lab efficiently. One person mashed up the banana and combined the banana mixture, one person creamed the butter, and I mixed the dry ingredients and made the topping mix. This way we could quickly mix everything together in a bowl and put it in the oven. We only had a group of 3 that day so we only made one batch, which I think helped with us finishing efficiently because we had more people to do the steps and less dishes to wash and put away. Even though our teamwork was good, there were still a few small things that we could do differently that would’ve resulted in an even better product. In the cakes there are two layers of batter with the topping mix in between and on top. I think we should have made the first layer of batter smaller, so that there would be more batter in the second layer. We could’ve also left a bit more of the topping for the top by putting less in the middle layer. I would do this so that there was more of a coating on the top, and so that the top layer of batter doesn’t come apart from the muffin so easily. Also, with even layers, the batter will rise evenly. When we started the lab, I didn’t know what I was hoping for other than to have muffins that looked somewhat like the demo and to get out on time, which is what we got so I’m happy with our result. They tasted good, as anything that has banana, chocolate, cinnamon, and brown sugar in it would, they rose well, and turned brown nicely. My friends kept eating pieces of them out of my hands after school because they liked them too! I think having us all split up on duties helped achieve a good product as well as reading ahead in the recipe many times so we knew what we were doing before each step. I enjoyed this lab a lot because I thought the ponderosa cakes tasted great and we finished and clean up before the bell rang. This was probably my favourite lab this month.
Isabel liked them too!!
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