Cooking Together: Sweet Potato Cake

The children were delighted by the sweet potato picture on October’s attendance card. Their excitement sparked an idea: let’s use sweet potatoes to make a cake.

Our recipe was sweet potato cake.

We began by showing the recipe and explaining the method. The children listened carefully as we introduced utensils and asked about their names and uses. They eagerly said things such as “We have that at home!” and “It’s for mixing!” This lesson was in Japanese, but in English the same questions encourage children to explain using the words they know, giving them reasons to speak spontaneously.

Next, we examined real sweet potatoes, experiencing their texture, weight, firmness and smell.

Then the cooking began!

The children cut the potatoes into cubes together with a teacher, after being told not to use a knife alone. They also enjoyed comparing the firm raw pieces with pieces softened in the microwave.

They took turns mixing pancake mix, eggs and milk, following the rule of counting to ten before passing it to a friend. Then the batter went into the mold and microwave.

When we discussed how to share the finished cake, someone kindly suggested offering it to teachers who had not been there. We shared with every teacher at CGK, and together finished a cake the size of a milk carton.

Cooking teaches more than a recipe. It encourages speaking and offers opportunities to explore numbers. For example, taking two eggs from a carton of ten lets children see how many remain, making quantity more tangible than a worksheet alone.

In the teacher’s experience at a previous school, older preschoolers who could read were able to follow recipes together. Communication was essential: they needed to discuss roles and take initiative.

We value these active-learning opportunities to nurture language and communication.