Giant macaroon nutcracker

Clicking on any of these images will open them larger in a new window.

Each year the Boston Ballet highlights the season with the Nutcracker ballet.  Two years ago, the Boston Ritz Carlton Hotel’s chef, Andrew Yeo and his pastry team, created a gorgeous and massive Nutcracker cake of macaroons and fondant to celebrate the event.  We have two activities about this amazing creation below.

First we have a traditional worksheet dealing with ratio, volume, surface area and ingredient quantities.  A second, 3-act activity is offered below the first.

Activity: MacaroonNutcracker2014.pdf

For members we have an editable Word doc and solutions.

MacaroonNutcracker2014.doc        MacaroonNutcracker2014-solution.pdf

Or, as a 3-act activity, show the image above (click to enlarge) and ask your students the questions that we’ve suggested in this 2nd activity.

Detailed teacher instructions for members:  3-act-Nutcracker-2014.pdf

• Look at the pictures of the giant man.  How many macarons were used to create him?
• Students make a best guess and consider a reasonable range.
• Students decide what additional information would be good to know.  Height?  Dimensions? Size of a Macaroon?
• Students work to get a better estimate of the number of macaroons.
• Students share solutions, methods, and final answers.  How did the final answers compare to the original guesses?
• Have your observations validated by showing the following newspaper clipping(available to all). Write-up with answers.

CCSS:  3.MD, MP.1, MP.2, MP.3, MP.4, 6.RP.3, 7.G.1, 7.G.6, HSG.MG.A.1

from Yummy Math http://www.yummymath.com/2015/giant-macaroon-nutcracker-2/