Life Skills

Activity Details

Time Needed: 30-45 minutes

Materials needed:

• 2 large oranges 
• 1 box muffin or cake mix 
• Sharp knife 
• Cutting board 
• Tablespoon 
• Mixing bowl 
• Mixer or mixing spoon 
• Spatula 
• Muffin tin or cookie sheet 
• Parents: This activity will require supervised use of a stove, microwave, campfire, or grill 

Setup: For this activity, we’ve chosen a recipe your grandmother may have made if she was a Girl Scout in the 1950s and 1960s. It’s a technique that has been passed down through generations of Girl Scouts!

Activity: Over time, Girl Scouts have learned to cook great food in a variety of ways … in cardboard box ovens, on tin can buddy burners, and even on hot rocks. Today, we’re going to try another technique: making orange cakes and cooking them in orange shells! 

Let’s get set up for cooking. Gather your cooking equipment and tie back your hair if it’s long. Last, tie an apron or kitchen towel around your waist. All set!

1. Carefully cut each of your oranges in half using the knife and a cutting board. Using a spoon, scoop out the fruit and eat it, share it, or save it. Be careful not to scoop through the orange shell, since that’s your cooking “pot.”   

2. Look at the muffin or cake mix package. If you’re cooking inside, check how hot your oven needs to be. Set the oven so it can preheat while we do our cooking. If you’re cooking over a campfire or grill, let the charcoal or wood burn down so that it’s just hot coals.

3. Follow the directions on the box to mix up the cake or muffin batter. If you want to get creative, you can add some of the orange pieces or other fruits or nuts to your cake or muffin batter.   

4. Place your empty orange halves in the cups of a muffin tin, open sides up so they make a little bowl. If you don’t have a muffin tin, you can just set each orange cup on a cookie sheet. 

5. Once your batter is mixed, carefully pour it in the orange shells, filling them to just below the top, so there’s room for the cakes to expand as they bake. If you have remaining batter, you can put it in cupcake liners in the empty muffin cups.   

6. Reading the box again, note the length of time it recommends for cupcakes. Put them in the oven and set a timer. Remember that you can check to see if a cake or muffin is done by inserting a toothpick in the center, and if it comes out clean, the cake is done. If you’re cooking on a grill or campfire, wrap the oranges in two layers of aluminum foil. Use tongs to carefully place them on the coals. Cook for the amount of time recommended for cupcakes. Then do the toothpick test and continue cooking until the toothpick comes out clean!

Reflection:

While your orange cakes cook, let’s talk about this process. If you didn’t cook over a grill or campfire, can you imagine how that would work? There you would want your fire to have burned down to coals, and you would wrap the orange shells in aluminum foil. Do you think you’d like to try this when you’re camping? What other kinds of batter would you like to try in the shells? Do you think the cake or muffin will capture the taste of the orange? Who are you going to share your orange cakes with? 

Once your timer goes off, test your cakes to be sure they’re done, and then let them cool before you try them! And if your mom, your grandmother, or someone in your neighborhood was a Girl Scout in the past, ask her if she ever made orange cakes over the fire.   

Troop Leaders:  The instructions for all badge steps are available free of charge in your  Girl Scout Volunteer Toolkit.

Girl Scouts at Home activities have been adapted from existing Girl Scout programming and optimized for use at home during a period of social distancing.

Adapted from Step 3 of the Cadette New Cuisines badge. Purchase The Cadette Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting to complete all requirements and earn the badge .

One of the best parts of camping is cooking and eating your meals in the great outdoors. Once you have earned this badge, you will be able to make amazing dishes from all over the world and way back in time. For your culinary tour, you can choose to present each dish individually to family or host one large meal, with the appetizer, dinner, and dessert from the different requirements!