A recipe for success
With the introduction of social distancing rules the West Gippsland Home Education Group quickly adapted and introduced a weekly baking challenge to provide an opportunity for students to maintain their social connections with each other.
Before COVID-19 restrictions, the students would have been involved in regular art, sport, excursions, camps, game days and social activities, which were all struck from the calendar as restrictions came in.
The new activity, a baking challenge called “nailed it” emerged.
Each week, a new ingredient list is released, so the student bakers can have a few guesses as to what they might be making, but it remains a mystery until baking time.
This is when the clock starts. The recipe is released and everyone bakes simultaneously in their own homes.
Baking time is kept quite short to give the challenge a bit of a Master Chef feeling.
Immediately following the bake, everyone is invited into a video conference to share their masterpiece.
“It’s great to have something to look forward to every week! I mostly enjoy eating the food, but it’s still fun to make it,” said Kayla, age 11.
Whether the baked items are a masterpiece to delight the senses, or an epic failure, they are held up to the camera and “nailed it” is proclaimed.
This is a celebration of effort, success, failure, learning and fun.
“I liked making the chocolate water cake because it tasted soooo good,” said Flynn, age 11. “I can’t wait until I get to make a star destroyer, Star Wars cake.”