Easy-Bake Goodness
(Don Strand/AP)
When I was a kid I loved to cook. I had an Easy-Bake oven and made the most awful tasting little cakes. Even so, it was so much fun to mix up the powder in the packets, pour the batter into the little pans, push the pans into the light-bulb oven with the funky little pusher, and then watch as it baked. I think I singed not a few eyelashes.
Hasbro even has a website focused on all things Easy-Bake.
The Easy-Bake is now some 43 years old and was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame this year!
Believe it or not there is actually an official Easy-Bake cookbook.
Even better there is the The Easy-Bake Oven Gourmet that features from-scratch Easy-Bake recipes by the likes of Rick Bayless (Chilaquiles with Roasted Tomato Salsa), Tom Douglas (Palace Olive Poppers), Mollie Katzen (Carrot Kugel), and other chefs and foodies such as Mark Bittman, Bobby Flay, David Lebovitz, and others.
You might be able to find your model in this eBay search on vintage Easy Bake ovens.
That little Easy-Bake oven has changed a lot in the past 40 some years.
Now there are several models, the closest to the old style looks like this:
Hasbro Easy-Bake Real Meal Oven
There are all sorts of mixes that you and your kids can use in the Easy-Bake ovens.
Blue’s Clues Blueberry Muffins
You could even enroll your favorite kid in the EASY-BAKE SWEET DELIVERY CLUB program.
According to Hasbro:
“For just one payment of $49.99*, your child will receive five shipments (each sent about every eight weeks) full of EASY-BAKE mixes and accessories- more than 60 items in all! Examples are cake and cookie mixes, Cookie Party Bake Set, cookie cutters, apron, spatula and wooden spoon”
While I could not find it with my most-uber google searching skills, I am sure that somewhere out there is a whole thriving community of Easy-Bake chefs and cooks who strive to bring excellence to Easy-Bake Cuisine.
Imagine an Easy-Bake Iron Chef, an Easy-Bake amuse buche, an Easy-Bake 12 course tasting menu with 12 different pairings with Kool-Aid.
The possibilities stagger the mind.
When my boys had a EBO, they would put pizza dough in the little cake pans and add their own toppings. They loved it!