5 activities to spark your high schooler’s interest in cooking

In baking, food colouring is often used to dye icing. While it’s easy to find in grocery stores, the homemade variety is just as effective and better for your health. Your teen can whip these colours up in no time:

• Red (strawberries, raspberries, cherries, cranberries, red beets)
• Violet (blackberries, bilberries, purple sweet potatoes)
• Orange (mangoes, clementines, papayas)
• Yellow (turmeric root, saffron threads)
• Blue (blueberries, red cabbage)
• Green (spinach, matcha tea)
• Etc.

Instructions:

• Chop your chosen dye ingredient into large pieces
• Put them in a saucepan and add water
• Bring to a rolling boil for about 20 minutes
• Remove from the heat and wait for the liquid to cool
• Using a funnel, pour the water into a clean container
• Use your food colouring in cookie or icing recipes

Note: You can store homemade food colouring in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours.

Cooking hard-boiled eggs is easy:

• Place the eggs in a saucepan
• Cover with cold water
• Place the lid on the saucepan
• Bring to a boil
• Remove from the heat
• Let the eggs sit in the water for 10–12 minutes
• Drain
• Rinse with cold water
• Remove the shells
• Prepare and serve

This technique can be used to make a variety of egg recipes: egg sandwiches, egg salads—and even hen eggs!

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1 carrot
• 2 cloves
• Etc.

Directions:

• Boil the egg
• Carve the hen’s comb from a piece of carrot
• Cut a sliver of carrot for the beak
• Remove the egg’s shell
• Make two incisions through the top and front of the egg
• Insert the comb and beak into the incisions
• Stick in the cloves to make eyes
• Enjoy!

Potato gnocchi are delicious bites that require few ingredients and very little prep. Here’s how to make them at home. 

Ingredients:

• 2 large potatoes
• 1 cup of flour
• ¼ tsp of salt
• 1 egg

Directions:

• Bake the potatoes whole in the oven at 375°F for 45 minutes
• Combine the flour, salt, and egg
• Cool and peel the baked potatoes
• Mash the potatoes on your work surface with a fork
• Make a small well in the centre of your mashed potatoes
• Pour the flour, salt, and egg mixture into the well
• Gently knead the mixture into a homogenous dough
• Shape the dough into a ball and press it flat
• Divide the dough into quarters
• Roll out each quarter into a long rope
• Slice the ropes of dough into bite-sized pieces
• Score the pieces with a fork

Once all the gnocchi have been made, gently drop them in a pot of boiling water and cook for 2–3 minutes. Serve with tomato sauce and enjoy!

Baking is certainly the most fickle branch of cooking. It relies on the chemical interactions between various ingredients, so recipes must be followed to the letter. One mis-measured tablespoon or forgotten step, and bam! Your cake is ruined.

Directions:

• Find a vanilla cake recipe
• Make the batter according to directions
• Divide the batter into 5 different bowls, pouring slightly less batter each time
• Add a different food colouring to each bowl and mix well
• Take the bowl with the most batter and pour it into a greased cake pan
• Take the bowl with second-most batter and pour it into the centre of the first layer
• Repeat this step with the remaining bowls
• Bake according to the recipe
• Ice the cake
• Serve and enjoy

Pasta is a crowd-pleaser and a great pantry staple for quick meals. You can teach your teen to make perfect pasta, every time:

• Fill a pot with water
• Bring the water to a boil
• Add salt (1 tbsp for 5 L of water)
• Add the pasta
• Stir to prevent sticking
• Cook according to the instructions on the packaging
• Drain
• Don’t rinse the pasta, as you want to preserve the surface starch
• Toss the pasta in a sauce
• Serve