Cooking Leadership Opportunity – Vegan Gluten Honouring Ceremony Cake
When a community member leaves the village, an honouring ceremony occurs with the whole community involved. Elliot, a UBC student from the Kelowna campus, was going to be leaving the village. We all agreed that a cake would definitely be required for the ceremony and I jumped at the opportunity because I love cooking! Since the first week at the village I have been really interested in learning about vegan and gluten free cooking, especially because I have never experienced cooking foods of this nature before. Many people at the Ecovillage are gluten free and/or vegan, so consideration of various dietary needs was required. Elizabeth, a fellow UBC teacher candidate, joined me on this baking adventure! We worked together on researching various cake recipes on the internet with the key words “gluten-free vegan chocolate cake” in our search. We found an incredible recipe that we both felt would be a great fit for the crowd and we reviewed it with our co-ordinator at the Ecovillage to get the go ahead.
Step 1: Double the recipe for number of people attending
Step 2: Search the kitchen for all ingredients
Step 3: Go to the local grocery store and buy any required ingredients
Step 4: Make the cake!
Here is the link to the recipe we used:
If you noticed, yes the cake was made out of beets and avocados! I am so incredibly shocked at how well this cake turned out and how delicious it was! It was a huge hit for the honouring ceremony! Elizabeth and I were so proud of ourselves for taking a risk, stepping out of our cooking comfort zone and trying something new – can you imagine how a child would feel when given that opportunity!
Cooking is a fun, interactive and adventurous activity that every child should be exposed to. Children should know what the ingredients look like, they should be exposed to the concepts of measuring and portioning, and once again, the aspect of fun and creative social interaction is so very important! This venture into learning how to make vegan and gluten free foods is a great learning tool to bring forward into the classroom because students are going to arrive with a variety of allergies and food restrictions. Instead of feeling stuck about not knowing how to keep a very inclusive environment, food restrictions can become wonderful opportunities for the teacher to learn and grow in their instructions and lesson planning. Finding new ways of cooking that accommodates many cultures and dietary needs broadens the teacher’s capabilities in the classroom. It also teaches students a very valuable lesson on inclusivity, community, understanding and respect for everyone involved.