Volcano cakes with lava flowing from them, surrounded by dinosaurs and cars, one of them stuffed with skittles and the other one stuffed with gummy bears – this was an ambitious undertaking for my ten year old daughter but she was determined to bake these cakes for her twin brothers’ fourth birthday and she did an amazing job !

This idea came to her about a month ago. Since then, she has been discussing it with her brothers, incorporating their ideas and inputs into it, drawing design pictures on paper, making ingredients lists, etc. Despite all the planning and preparations, she had a major setback when she was making these cakes. She dropped one of the cakes after working on it for about three hours. She broke down into tears and almost gave up on this project. With some support from her parents, she was able to take a break, regroup, restart and finish both cakes, all by herself.

I believe that we all learn by doing, not by memorizing math equations or finishing up a ton of math and science workbooks or attending extra enrichment classes outside school. To that effect, this has been a great learning experience for my daughter. She experienced the emotional highs and lows and learned what it takes to steer an ambitious project to its finish line, starting from the inception of the idea. Her brothers were very happy with their cakes. Both cakes were delicious!