STANDARDS

NGSS: Core Idea: PS1.B

CCSS: Writing: 3

TEKS: Science:  3.5A, 4.5A, 5.5A, 6.4A; ELA: 3.19, 4.17, 5.17, 6.16

Cake Chemist

YouTube star Rosanna Pansino bakes science-inspired treats 

John Gilhooley

Rosanna Pansino makes cakes that look like brains, unicorns, and lab beakers. It’s all for Nerdy Nummies, her popular YouTube show. In 2011, when Pansino started her channel, she was a baking beginner. Today, 9 million subscribers watch as she measures, mixes, and frosts tasty treats.

A baker and a scientist may seem nothing alike. But they’re more similar than you might think, says Pansino. She uses science and engineering every day to make her clever cakes.

Baking With Rosanna Pansino
Watch a video about how Rosanna Pansino makes dinosaur fossil footprint cookies.

Cooking Chemistry

How does Pansino turn gooey batter into a delicious dessert? It takes a series of changes that produce substances with new properties. Those reactions won’t happen unless the recipe is just right. “Every ingredient has a role to play,” says Pansino

For example, most desserts include baking soda or baking powder. These ingredients are called leavening (LEV-uhn-ing) agents. When mixed with other ingredients, they form bubbles of carbon dioxide that make the dessert rise

Dessert Engineer

Pansino’s on-screen treats have to look good. And that’s not always easy. Pansino loves cake popsballs of cake mixed with icing and formed into lollipops. But the first ones she made kept sliding down the sticks. Another time, her layer cake completely collapsed

Over time, Pansino has learned to engineer her treats to keep them from toppling. For example, she knows that her recipes need to include the right amount of flour. Flour contains many . As a cake bakes, these tiny particles grab on to each other. The links they form help the cake hold its shape.  

The Art of Decorating

Copyright ©2015 by Rosanna Pansino from THE NERDY NUMMIES COOKBOOK published by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Photography by Michael Schmidt

Pansino’s “Chemistry Lab Cake” looks like an overflowing flask.

Once a cake is baked, it’s time to decorate it. Pansino creates treats inspired by science, math, and popular culture

Today, her frosted creations look almost like real-life objects. But it took her years to learn her skills. “My first videos weren’t the best examples of professional decorating,” she says. “But the best way to get better is to keep practicing.”

Pansino tests each recipe many times to find the perfect formula. All that experimenting is hard work. She spends about 70 hours a week testing recipes and preparing to film her show

But Pansino says dreaming up new ideas is a lot of fun. And even when her creations don’t come out quite right, they still taste good. “My grandma always used to say, ‘Mistakes are delicious!’” Pansino says

proteins

microscopic substances that are essential for living organisms    

gas

an air-like state of matter that has no fixed shape     

chemical reactions

changes that produce new substances with different properties than the original substances had    

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