Activity Records ＼ Our works and Stories

We surfed the Internet to read the recipes and planned to make pineapple shortcakes and handmade cookies to experience making traditional cakes and western cookies. There were School Fair activities during this semester. A schoolmate is accepting supports from the HOPE Foundation for Cancer Care. So we decided to hold the snacks charity sale, and then donate the money to the foundation. We hoped to pass the love and warmth forward to help people in need.

How to make pineapple shortcakes

How to make pineapple shortcakes

【Pineapple Shortcakes】【Handmade cookies】【Charity Sale on School Fair】
【Concluding Remarks】【Feedback and Analysis】

Pineapple Shortcakes
We bought some seasonal fresh pineapples in September. Everyone made the pineapple filling in club classes. At first, we cut the peeled pineapples into small pieces to remain the texture of the pineapples. In addition, we also add the shred white gourd in the pineapple filling to make the filling with abundant texture. We used the scale to measure the amounts of the pineapple, white gourd and the sugar precisely and made records carefully. We had to stir the pineapple filling carefully while cooking it, or it might be burned. Cooking the filling was an important process which needs more time with patience. We cooled the filling and then put it in the fridge so that we would use it to make the cakes for next class.
A week later, in the next club class, we mixed the butter, eggs, flour and sugar to make the dough, and then measure the proper amount of dough to make the cake skin. We used the skin to wrap up the filling inside carefully. Then put it into the mold. After the dough be shaped, put it in the oven to bake. The pineapple shortcakes smelled so good after taking out of the oven. We packaged the cakes and invited our teachers and classmates to taste them, and we brought them home to share with our families. Finally, we collected the feedback questionnaires from people who had them.

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Handmade cookies
During the lunch breaks, we made the handmade cookies in the kitchen at school.
We measured the amounts of flour, butter and sugar with the scale to make the dough. And we put the pumpkin seeds, dried cherries, and the cranberries to add the flavor of the cookies. We made the dough to the strips, and then put the strips of dough into the fridge to freeze it. At least, let the dough to be frozen for one hour.
We took out the frozen strips in club class, and sliced it. Then put the slices into the oven to bake. After half an hour, the good smell was coming from the oven. We tasted the handmade cookies immediately. They were crispy, fragrant and so delicious!

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Charity Sale on School Fair
We finished making the pineapple shortcakes and handmade cookies the day before the School Fair. The yellow cake skin coated with light caramel color. Handmade cookies are awesome, too. They smelled good. Just by looking at them made our mouths water and want to put the cakes into our mouths. We cooperated to prepare for the charity sale. Some classmates weighed the cookies and packaged them. Some packaged the pineapple shortcakes. Some wrote the thank-you cards with special drawings. We thought handwriting the cards with lovely illustrations would make the customers feel our thanks and appreciation with sincere. They may feel joyful after reading our thankful cards. Each charity snack was sold with a “Product Description”. We hoped the customers know the ingredients and the characteristics of the snack.
We delivered the orders in person with the thankful cards during the School Fair.
Our teachers and classmates supported our charity sale, and gave a lot of positive feedback. They said both the cakes and cookies were delicious. Although we did not make a lot of cakes and cookies, we still felt a sense of accomplishment when we saw lots of orders and all of the packaged snacks were sold out soon.

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Concluding Remarks
We found that it looked like an easy charity sale. But in fact, it was not easy at all. We started from the preparation, promotion, making the product description, designing the thankful card, finally, giving the snacks to our customers. We had to plan thoroughly.
There were many accidental situations when we were making snacks in the kitchen. For instance, the filling came out from the skin causing the bad looks of the cakes. But because many people supported our thoughts of doing charity, all of the snacks are sold out in a short while. We not only learnt how to make snacks, but also how to donate the income to the charity foundation to help people in need through the charity sale. We experienced the meaning of the proverb, “It's more blessed to give than to receive.” We have made the pastry not only because it is the famous kind of food, but the media of passing the love and warmth forward to others.

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Feedback and Analysis
We invited teachers, students and parents to taste the pineapple shortcakes, and collected 24 feedback comments. The followings are the feedback:
(1) The appearance: Because we hoped there would be full of filling, the outer skin was made thin. Unexpectedly, that some pineapple cakes’ fillings busted out when they were taken out of the oven. That’s why 63% of the tasters think the appearance of the pineapple shortcakes only look so so.

(2) The smell: 87% of the tasters think that our pineapple shortcakes smell good. That is because we made them with fresh pineapples, sugar and the maltose. We made the filling with the fresh and high-quality ingredients, so the smell is, no doubt, great.

(3) The texture: 67% of the tasters gave the highest evaluation, five stars to our pineapple shortcakes. 21% of the tasters gave them four stars. The results show that all tasters think both the texture and taste are awesome!

(4)The sweetness: 59% of the tasters think that the sweetness is proper, 33% of the tasters think the pineapple filling is a little sweeter. Maybe it’s because most of the tasters are teachers, and part of them prefer less sweet food.Therefore, they think it’s a little bit too sweeter.

(5)The followings are extracted from the feedback and opinions of the tasters:
●Real ingredients, professional! Less sugar, less butter. The tastes fit modern people’s needs. Made in the school kitchen, handmade both the crispy skin and filling.Excellent!
●Crispy skin, sour with sweet filling, it’s great to have it with a cup of coffee or hot tea.
●The filling remained the natural fiber texture of pineapples.Tasting like the real fruit. The cake skin is crispy and smells good with features.
●The outside of the pineapple shortcakes is crispy, while the filling is soft and smells good.  I feel truly happy when I eat it.

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