Soil Sample Cupcakes Recipe

Scouts always enjoy playing with their food! This would actually make a nice snack for any meeting based on one of the ecology lessons.

If you have Boy Scouts working on the Soil and Water Conservation merit badge and they want to have some fun, they could make these themselves. Their patrols would thank them if they brought these to a troop meeting.

Soil Sample Cupcakes

Equipment:

• White cake mix, prepared according to package directions
• four bowls
• food coloring
• cupcake liners
• cupcake pans
• chocolate frosting
• green sprinkles
• straws (clear – thicker ones work better)

Direction

1. Prepare the cake mix according to package directions.
2. Divide the cake mix evenly between the four bowls.
3. Leave one of the bowls white. Mix a different color into the other bowls, so you have three additional colors.
4. Put the liners in the cupcake pans.
5. Carefully spoon the batter into the liners, so that you have different layers of color.
6. Bake according to package directions.
7. Let cool.
8. Frost with icing (for topsoil) and sprinkle with green sprinkles (for grass!)
9. Give each Scout a cupcake and a straw. Have him insert the straw in the cupcake to take a “soil sample”. He should be able to see the layers in the straw. The might even be able to blow through the straw to get the sample out..
10. Explain that this is how core samples by scientists doing environmental research.
11. Let them eat their cupcakes!