Baking Fun Facts
Micro STEM Recall
Random STEM Trivia
Guess the Recipe
Baking and STEM
100

Made in 1858, three yards wide and weighing 300 lbs, for Queen Victoria's wedding.

When was the first tiered wedding cake made?

100

This term refers to how close a measured value is to the true, target, or known value.

What is accuracy?

100

Sucrose breaks down into glucose and fructose through this type of chemical reaction involving the addition of a water molecule.

What is hydrolysis?

100

Graham crackers, Marshmallows, and chocolate Hershey bars.

What are S'mores?

100

Unlike baking powder, this leavening agent requires an acid (like buttermilk or lemon juice) in the recipe to activate and produce carbon dioxide gas.

What is baking soda?

200

The chocolate chip cookie was invented completely by accident when the baker ran out of regular baker's chocolate and chopped up a bar of this famous brand instead.

What is Nestlé?

200

This term refers to how close a series of repeated measurements are to one another, regardless of whether they hit the true target.

What is precision?

200

Denoted by a well known Greek letter, this mathematical constant represents the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter.

What is pi?

200

Egg yolks, heavy cream, sugar, and vanilla, baked in a water bath and topped with a layer of caramelized sugar, then torched.

What is Crème Brûlée?

200

If you run out of brown sugar while baking, you can easily make your own at home by mixing white granulated sugar with what sticky syrup.

What is molasses?

300

When testing baked goods, inserting a toothpick in the center should yield a few crumbs rather than coming out completely clean. If it does not, what has already happened to your treat.

What is overbaking

300

If a dart thrower hits the outer ring of the dartboard four times right next to each other, their throws have high precision, but low what

What is accuracy?

300

Discovered by Alexander Fleming in 1928, this was the world’s first broadly effective antibiotic derived from mold.

What is penicillin?

300

Flour, cold cubed butter, sugar, baking powder, cream, and lemon zest, often brushed with milk and baked into triangular pastry wedges.

What are scones?

300

Leaving this essential dairy ingredient out on the counter to reach room temperature before mixing ensures a smooth, non-clumpy cake batter.

What is butter?

400

Adding a pinch of salt to sweet baked goods doesn't make them taste salty; instead, it enhances flavor and temporarily blocks this type of taste receptor on your tongue.

What is bitterness?

400

In experimental lab data, high accuracy with low precision usually points to this type of consistent, repeatable error in equipment or calibration.

What is a systematic error?

400

This differential stain is commonly used in cell biology labs to rapidly determine the cell viability of yeast by turning dead cells blue while live cells remain clear.

What is Methylene Blue?

400

Egg whites, cream of tartar, granulated sugar, and vanilla extract whipped to stiff peaks.

What is meringue?

400

Named after a French chemist, this chemical reaction between amino acids and reducing sugars gives browned foods like bread crusts their desirable flavor.

What is the Maillard reaction?

500

While we call them "vanilla beans," the plant that actually produces vanilla beans  come from what specific type of flowering plant

What is an orchid?

500

Unlike systematic errors which skew accuracy, these unpredictable variations in measurements primarily affect precision.

What are random errors?

500

This single-celled fungus is the primary microorganism responsible for fermentation in bread baking and brewing.

What is Saccharomyces cerevisiae?

500

Flour, baking soda, melted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla, and overripe mashed fruit.

What is banana bread?

500

In chocolate making, this process of carefully heating and cooling melted chocolate aligns cocoa butter molecules into stable crystals to give it a glossy shine and crisp snap.

What is tempering?

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