Cooking Advice

Copyright (c) 2007 SharpBrains

Today we are traveling to Japan to learn about latest gaming trends there. Go Hirano is a Japanese executive with experience in neuroscience and gaming.

Alvaro Fernandez (AF): Hirano-san, what is the state of Brain Fitness and Brain Training in Japan? what are the most popular programs so far?

Go Hirano (GH): So far, the most popular application is anti-aging, and most popular product is Dr. Kawashima’s book of calculations and oral reading for adults.

TV variety shows regularly come up with Brain specials. It is hardly deniable that brains enchant Japanese people. We love brain training.

There were two times of “brain boom” in the past and Brain Imaging created a third one most recently. Dr. Kawashima claimed calculations and oral reading are good to develop kids’ brains in the book for children “Jibun no Nou wo Jibun de Sodateru (Develop your own brain)” in 2001. In the book, gaming was said to reduce prefrontal activation and have bad or no benefit for kid’s brain. He compared the fMRI image of someone doing simple calculations and playing games, and apparently the image of the former showed more activities. To see the activities inside the brain was fresh for people, but the methodology and logic was not reviewed by any scientific publication. It was published by a company that provides a franchised chain of learning classes. The company maintained books at bookstores to create a boom and was very successful. Then they came up with adult version of training book, and sold more than 2 million.

Adults and senior people were seriously did addition and subtraction of 1 digit numbers for countless times believing it will maintain and even enhance their brainpower.

This then became the basis for the Nintendo Brain Age video game. More recently from him, cooking became good for brain since cooking demands planning and multiple tasks. They demand prefrontal cortex activation, and he showed image of a brain when cooking. A gas company that wants to sell more gas ranges and ovens helped sponsor the research.

AF: we have heard there has been a backlash recently. Is it more of a scientific, or consumer one?

GH: Scientific for adults’ games, consumer for kids’ ones. In 2001, another researcher, Dr. Akio Mori wrote an article called “Gemu(=Game) Nou(=Brain) no Kyofu (The Fear of Game Brain)”. He created his own EEG machine and gathered the data of people who frequently play games and people who do not. He found the “beta-wave” from frequent game players that are “same as senior people with dementia”. That, he said, is because of lack of activities in their prefrontal cortex, and that means more probabilities for lower academic performance and crime. Though his equipment was not verified, and he was said to get confused about alpha and beta wave of EEG, parents and education authorities like municipal education committees loved his book and invited him for lectures and conferences. His new book in 2006 became the recommended book of the year from the National PTA Committee.

The sales of software on home game machines have declined from its peak of 533 billion yen in 1997 to its 53%, 315 billion yen in 2005. Dr. Mori’s book and phenomena was the finishing blow to the industry, especially for kids’ games. Therefore game companies had to find new targets who had never played game machines, like middle-aged group and women. Brain Age was preceded by a Sega’s game box that was the natural next step after the book from Dr. Kawashima I mentioned.

For women, games on English training, language support for traveling, cooking, common sense and etiquette are provided. These new sort of serious games not only helped the handheld game machine stay always out of stock and reach multi-million sales, but also successfully gave the image that games are, depending on the software, good for the brain and education. Funny it is that the authority backing the campaign is the same Dr. Kawashima who originally recommended kids to calculate rather than to play games for the benefit for brains.

No wonder, authorities from the academic and medical societies of the neuroscience field started criticizing scientifically unproven or no evidence-based products, books and opinion makers. This year, neuroscience researchers started a group called “Nou wo Ikasu (Make the best out of Neuroscience)” and have frequent meetings of researchers where people can join.

However, adult consumers keep devouring such games. Dentsu, the biggest advertising agency announced the No.1 Consumer-chosen Choice of the Product 2006 was game software and books for brain training. So far, apparently the demands went far out before the real neuroscience comes to fill. Between the balance of body and brain, Japanese people are one of the extreme that is most brain-ism oriented, to the brain side, says Dr. Yoro.

AF: Hirano-san, many thanks for your insights.

GH: you are welcome.

A cake is one of the most important foods for an occasion. Cakes are sweet and baked, and are best topped best with candy-colored confectionaries especially if it is meant for kids. Cakes are often made from flour, sugar, egg, butter, shortening, or margarine, milk, water and other flavorings. It is often topped with frosting like butter cream. There are also different varieties like those of bread-like, those that are elaborate and luxurious and the ice cream cakes. Making cake before is a complicated procedure. However, you can now make cake simply with cooking games. Bake your favorite cake at cooking games and you will learn how to bake different cakes aside from your favorite too. Prepare your mixer, bowls and microwave oven at the virtual kitchen now!

Chocolate cake. Cakes have many variations, so as chocolate cakes. These variations are based on the ingredients that have been used. There can be the banana brownie cake, fudge cake, chocolate chip cake or chocolate cake glazed with chocolate butter cream. You can do the basic procedure in baking cake and do variations on the frosting and the flavor.

Strawberry cake. Strawberry cake is one of the worth-trying cakes. This is a special cake made with strawberries. In making the cake, you will need two cups white sugar, strawberry flavored gelatin, 1 cup butter, 4 eggs, cake flour, baking powder, milk, 1 tablespoon vanilla extract and 1/2 cup strawberry puree made from frozen sweetened strawberries. It is best to let this cake sit in the refrigerator to chill before serving.

Ice cream cake. Ice cream cakes are made from cake mix and ice cream. Its cake and ice cream in two cold layers! You can try to make black forest ice cream cake, brownie ice cream cake, cranberry pistachio ice cream cake or any of your favorite ice cream.

There are still other cakes that you will love to eat and bake. If you want to learn more on how to do these recipes, try cooking at online games. In the virtual kitchen, everything is prepared and you only need to follow instructions carefully. Bake chocolate cake, strawberry cake, ice cream cake the way you like it. Experiment with the ingredients and you will be an expert pastry chef.

Cooking games can really be an exciting thing that you can spend your time with. Explore various cake recipes and other pastries and be a chef. If you are already learned in baking, you can get into real kitchen and do real cakes. For now, enjoy cooking and decorate cakes too. Put your artistic creativity in making cake and you will surely make a very special cake for a very special event for those you love.

When we cook, we often think that simple ingredient s may not be as good for a great recipe. This is the reason why some are afraid to experiment. However, in cooking, even the simplest ingredients can impress the guests. You don’t need special ingredients to make fabulous recipes. Learn how to cook simple but delicious foods at cooking games like pumpkin pan cake and delight yourself and your friends!

To make the pumpkin pan cake at cooking games, you will need these ingredients: two cups all-purpose flour; 2 teaspoon baking powder; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; ¼ teaspoon nutmeg; ¼ teaspoon ginger; ¼ teaspoon salt; ½ cup vegetable oil; 1 ¼ cups sugar; 1 egg; 1teaspoon vanilla extract; and 1 cup canned pumpkin. For the cream cheese frosting, you will need 3 cups confectioners’ sugar; 1 8-once package cream cheese; 1 teaspoon lemon juice; 4 tablespoon butter; yellow and red food coloring; pretzel nuggets (stems) and green gumdrops (leaves).

After you are able to prepare the ingredients, preheat the oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit and line a 12-cup muffin tin with bake cups. In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt. Set the mixture aside.

In a separate mixing bowl, stir together the oil and sugar. Whisk in the eggs and stir in the vanilla extract. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and gently stir the mixture until well blended. Stir the pumpkin into the batter until it is thoroughly combined. Spoon the batter into the lined muffin tins. Bake for 20 minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle of the cupcake comes out clean and then removed to a rack to cool thoroughly.

Meanwhile, make the cream cheese frosting. In a medium-size mixing bowl, beat together the confectioner’s sugar, cream cheese, butter, and lemon juice until smooth. Add about 12 drops of yellow food coloring and 4 drops of red food coloring and beat until the frosting turns orange.

For authentic-looking pumpkins, pipe on the frosting to resemble a pumpkin’s ridges. Fill a sealable plastic bag with frosting, snip a small hole in the corner, and pipe curved lines over each cupcake. Use pretzel nuggets for the pumpkin stems and cut flattened green gumdrops into leaves.

Making pumpkin pan cake is very easy to do. All you need is to follow instructions carefully and enjoy do the cooking. If you are afraid with the kitchen for burns or possible injuries, you can try to cook at cooking games. in the virtual kitchen, you can learn other recipes without the fear of the hazards in the kitchen. Enjoy cooking even with the simplest ingredients and you will have delightful dishes you can be proud of.