Bake and Share: A Budget-Friendly Christmas Cake

🎄 Holiday Math Challenge: Can You Bake a Christmas Cake for Less?


With the holiday spirit in full swing, students take on a real-world challenge: Can they bake a delicious Christmas cake for less than the $25 store-bought price? In this festive and engaging 7th-grade math worksheet, students dive into a cost-saving baking adventure that reinforces key math skills through a relatable and meaningful task.


🧁 Worksheet Storyline:

Store-bought Christmas cakes are expensive—each one costing around $25. Determined to spread joy without overspending, students decide to bake their own cake from scratch. They’ll calculate ingredient conversions, find costs using a price chart, and compare the final total to see how much they save by baking it themselves.


📘 What Students Will Do:

  • Convert ingredient measurements from cups, teaspoons, and dozens to pounds and standard units
  • Use a conversion rule chart and a price chart to calculate the cost of each ingredient
  • Add up the total cost of the homemade cake
  • Compare their cost to a $25 store-bought cake and calculate savings
  • Analyze a pie chart representing the cost breakdown of each ingredient
  • Answer questions about which ingredient costs the most and least


✏️ Math Concepts Covered:

  • Ratios and unit conversions
  • Multiplying and rounding decimals
  • Proportional reasoning
  • Data interpretation using pie charts
  • Basic financial literacy and cost comparison


📈 Standards Alignment:

  • 7.RP.A.3 – Solve multi-step real-life and mathematical problems using ratios and percents
  • 7.NS.A.3 – Solve real-world problems involving decimals and fractions
  • 7.SP.C.8 – Use visual displays of data to interpret and analyze information


🔧 Features:

  • Built-in randomization so each student receives a unique problem set
  • Fully auto-graded—teachers can sit back and monitor real-time progress
  • Includes visual elements like charts and images to support engagement
  • Perfect for math centers, holiday-themed lessons, or applied practice
  • Brings holiday cheer while reinforcing core 7th grade math skills


🎁 Make math meaningful and festive—assign this real-world budgeting challenge today and let your students bake their way to better financial sense!

Learning Objective

Students will apply real-world math skills to calculate the cost of baking a cake from scratch by:

  • Converting between different measurement units (cups, pounds, ounces, dozens)
  • Using proportional reasoning to calculate ingredient quantities
  • Applying multiplication with decimals to find total ingredient costs
  • Interpreting and analyzing a pie chart representing cost breakdowns
  • Comparing homemade costs to store-bought prices to make financial decisions


This activity reinforces key 7th grade standards in ratios and proportional relationships, decimal operations, and data interpretation—all within a real-life context students can relate to.

Bake and Share: A Budget-Friendly Christmas Cake
Grade Level
7
Type
Real-World Worksheet
Duration
20 minutes
Auto-Graded
Yes
Topics
Ratio, Unit Rate, Proportional Relationships, Operations with Rational Numbers, Negative Numbers
Tags
Real WorldFinancial CalculationsApplicationGraph-BasedHomeworkExit TicketSeasonal