I have a friend with a darling young teen who is fascinated with baking. She asked if I had any ideas for a science fair project centered around baking, but I am not coming up with anything that's not lame. Any thoughts?

levening agents - what are they and how do they work? Why do we use baking soda in some recipes and baking powder in others. What happens if you alter the amount of levening agents in a recipe. What if you subsituted one for the other?

She could then go on to explain what the chemical reaction is, how it is effected by heat, so forth and so on. Call me lame, but I think it would be cool!

Here are a few links you can send her. Also, tell her to google science of baking and she will find some other things.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/index.html

http://www.candyexperiments.com/

Thank you both - I knew I could count on the collective genius of this website!

My son went to state several times in middle & high school. Judges like the unusual...so what question does she have about baking? Then figure out a test to find the answer. Do the test multiple times and do graphs (they like that), seems to be important that you cross your t's and dot your i's..so have her make sure she follows the scientific method. She needs to tell what her question is, why it is important to know, when she covers her experiment..tell what happened that was not planned, why she thinks that happened and if she were to do it again, what would she do different (you might prove your hypothesis is wrong); be able to explain how the information she learned can be used. Have references; if you do pics..at state you have to give the photographer credit on your board (be sure she is not in the pictures). Be sure to use the correct form of effect/affect. There's lots more..but those are the main ones (oh..and she needs to be able to tell what computer program she used for graphs, etc..they want to know mom & dad didn't do it). My son did one on "Does cheap dog food make your dog poop more?" (it does) the judges loved it!

Building upon the leavening agents suggestion, maybe she could also incorporate whipped egg whites to lighten a cake (no chemical reaction) and compare which has the lightest texture or crumb.