Week 5: Truly a PBL week

This time I was the student...

It all started last Monday morning when my four-year old daughter exclaimed: "Mummy, I want a Minnie Mouse cake for my birthday!" The moment I thought to myself: "OK, I'll order the cake tomorrow", she excitedly continued: "And I want to help you make it!"

Help ME make it...when did I say I was going to make the cake?

Anyway, my daughter was very specific about everything: it had to be a chocolate-cherry-Plazma (a kind of biscuits) cake, Minnie Mouse's en face portrait with a red dotted bow had to be on it. "Phew!", I thought to myself, "At least she didn't ask me to make a 3D Minnie figurine."

So the first few steps of my PBL had already been completed: my daughter (and I) agreed on the topic of our project, the final product was obvious, structuring was pretty much deadline-dictated: the cake had to be done by Saturday noon as the birthday party was on Saturday at 4pm.

So information gathering started the next day: a cake recipe, the necessary ingredients, the necessary decorating material, the necessary Minnie Mouse photo. Once again, Google was my best friend :) And of course, my daughter was a very helpful instructor.

And then came the fun part! It was an awesome experience shopping for all the necessary ingredients and actually making the cake. Everything went smoothly and was easier than I had expected. The decorating part was the best! It was like a sculpturing class to me and my daughter. We enjoyed playing with the decorating dough, or the fondant icing as professionals call it :)


The final product was done on Friday evening and ready for the public display the next day!

I must say that it was greatly admired both for its looks and taste.

Most importantly, my daughter's constant smile was the biggest reward I could get.