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Magic School Bus TV Tie-Ins

The Magic School Bus Gets Baked in a Cake: A Book About Kitchen Chemistry

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When the class tries to bake a cake for Ms. Frizzle's birthday, they wind up inside it and have some delicious fun learning all about mixtures and reactions that occur when ingredients are combined. Original. TV tie-in.

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

6 people are currently reading
694 people want to read

About the author

Joanna Cole

489 books205 followers
Joanna Cole, who also wrote under the pseudonym B. J. Barnet, was an author of children’s books who teaches science.

She is most famous as the author of The Magic School Bus series of children's books. Joanna Cole wrote over 250 books ranging from her first book Cockroach to her famous series Magic School Bus.

Cole was born in Newark, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby East Orange. She loved science as a child, and had a teacher she says was a little like Ms. Frizzle. She attended the University of Massachusetts and Indiana University before graduating from the City College of New York with a B.A. in psychology. After some graduate education courses, she spent a year as a librarian in a Brooklyn elementary school. Cole subsequently became a letters correspondent at Newsweek, and then a senior editor for Doubleday Books for Young Readers.

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5 stars
2,061 (58%)
4 stars
766 (21%)
3 stars
573 (16%)
2 stars
104 (2%)
1 star
30 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
23 reviews
April 25, 2012
The Magic School Bus Gets Baked In A Cake is part of a series that all children love to read. This book is about how the kids want to surprise their teacher Ms. Frizzle for her birthday but they forget the cake so they take the magic school bus to a bakery and they learn how to bake a cake and the chemistry that goes along with baking as well.

I think all of the magic school bus books are awesome for kids to read because they are fun and educational at the same time. They integrate a lot of different things you learn in school into a story and an adventure that is sure to grab the readers attention. I have never read a magic school bus book that I did not like.

The book is very accurate in conveying factual information throughout the text. It has its fiction part to it but a factual side as well.
The information is presented in a very organized manner easy for readers to understand and enjoy.
The format and design of the book is VERY appealing to students. It has appealing illustrations and an awesome plot with fiction and nonfiction events throughout.
I feel the author's writing style is very clear and generates enthusiasm for the topic of science and baking as well as adventure.
Profile Image for Julia Jasztal.
522 reviews
February 19, 2013
Mommy's review from 09/04/11 -


We've read a handful of Magic School Bus books and so far we've liked them all. I like the fact that they're more substantial than a lot of other books for kids Julia's age.
The little balloon blurbs from the kids make for somewhat difficult reading at times because I have to point so Julia knows who is saying what. But that's a small price to pay for Julia liking a book so much.
This story is about the kids and Ms. Frizzle learning chemistry. During the course of this learning they learn some similarities between chemistry and baking.
I like how unique these books (and the cartoons) are - I know of no other book like them. I haven't found one that Julia hasn't at the very least, very much liked, so they're winners in my book.
Profile Image for Heather.
1,081 reviews77 followers
June 9, 2008
My generic review of the Magic School Bus books -

We really love the series. This book doesn't have all the cartoony dialouge asides that the earlier books have. There are maybe a comment or two per page instead of full conversations. Some people hate that; I think I prefer it. The page is less busy.

These books clearly explain a certain topic. There are often additional activities at the end of the book for further learning.

We read these for 'fun' during picture book time and we read them when learning about a certain subject.

Most of the books have movies which correspond. We've enjoyed those as well.
50 reviews
June 1, 2022
This book is definitely a longer read picture book than most. There is a lot of dialogue in this story which could be great when introducing adding conversation in writing and the grammatical format for such. The Magic School Bus series is a great way to include science lessons in reading. For schools that do not have access to science time, these books would be great supplemental texts to teach science concepts in a fun way. This book even includes an easy at-home science experiment the reader can participate in.
Profile Image for Karin.
951 reviews18 followers
February 9, 2023
Another fun book from the school library. It was great to see the kids take the lead in this one. I still miss the old books with all the little info boxes that let you dig deeper into a subject, but this is a good one.
Profile Image for Stasia.
1,046 reviews10 followers
January 22, 2019
I think I owned about all the Magic School Bus books and carted them all over creation in a book bag with me when I was younger. This was one of my favorites!! #90skid
Profile Image for Joshua Ezell.
15 reviews1 follower
July 13, 2013
It's Ms. Frizzle's birthday but, her students forgot to bake the cake. A field trip to a bakery seems like the perfect solution. When they get there they realize they don't have any of her favorite cake, chocolate. The kids accidentally get shrunk, make cake batter, and learn about chemistry in the process. Then the baker ends up baking the bus inside the cake.


The plot is very organized and is a simple way of teaching science to an younger audience. The book uses visual presentation and words to get the reader engaged in the learning experience. I see a lot of play on words that makes the subject of science more fun.I would use this to teach the strategy of using words to engage your reader in the subject.
Profile Image for Dolly.
Author 1 book670 followers
July 25, 2009
This is a good book in the Magic School Bus TV tie-in series. The kids want to surprise Ms. Frizzle for her birthday, but almost forgot the cake. They end up taking a field trip (of course) to a bakery to learn about chemistry and cooking. This is an interesting way to introduce chemistry and to show how to follow a recipe in cooking and baking. It's a fun story to read aloud and our girls have borrowed this one from the library a couple of times.
Profile Image for Randie D. Camp, M.S..
1,197 reviews
September 4, 2012
My son chose this book for his bedtime story tonight. He loves this series and science, so the lengthy text wasn't an issue for him but might for other children. The highlight for my son was the reaction of mixing the baking soda and vinegar, we will be doing our own experiment with those materials very soon.

The illustrations are humorous, full of action, and the speech bubbles add another level of interest and fun.
Profile Image for Little Miss and the Legomeister.
595 reviews4 followers
October 12, 2011
I love the Magic School Bus books. I've read quite a few over the years. Legomeister loved them a couple of years ago. He still checks them out sometimes, but he doesn't ask me to read them to him anymore. Now it's Little Miss who requests them.

This one is a bit inane.
Profile Image for Sarah.
374 reviews2 followers
March 28, 2012
Malcolm says, "I liked that they got baked in the cake, and I LOVE chocolate. And I like that Ms. Frizzle had a chemistry set dress on, and not a birthday dress on. And I like that Dorothy Ann put a balloon on a container. That was weird too."
103 reviews
Read
August 5, 2016
Ms Frizzle takes her students on an adventure to the bakery. Ms Frizzle explains to her students on how baking is chemistry. The students of the magical school bus reach an adventure and learn about how chemistry can be applied to every day cooking. Fun book to read to 2nd-4th grade students.
Profile Image for Joy.
1,591 reviews11 followers
November 21, 2016
My husband found this at a Half Price Books for my six year old who enjoys the Magic School Bus TV series. The book follows the episode very closely.

It's Ms. Frizzle's birthday and the class has forgotten to buy a cake. They hatch a plan to make a cake for her on a class trip to the bakery.
Profile Image for Rivkah.
505 reviews2 followers
July 29, 2011
I loved reading this book to the kids I nanny for. They had no idea chemistry could be so tastey!
Profile Image for Lauren.
3,674 reviews143 followers
April 27, 2012
Loved watching this TV show as a kid. I feel like I learned so much from the books and the show!
Profile Image for Sarra Anderson.
7 reviews
Read
September 26, 2012
Like this for the world of possibilities I can use it for with my before and after school age children.
Profile Image for Tracey.
790 reviews2 followers
January 9, 2013
This one was not as engaging for me as the others, however, I will still use it in class.
Profile Image for Cassie.
591 reviews20 followers
Read
March 26, 2013
It's Ms. Frizzle's birthday! The class decides to make Ms. Frizzle a chocolate cake. Really great science lesson about how chemistry is found everywhere.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews

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