Wednesday, May 6, 2009

:: Adventures in Baking with the Easy Bake Oven ::

My son wants to be a Chef. 
Actually, he tells everyone he is already a Chef. He can make scrambled eggs - and very well, I might add. Jason and I really try to encourage Ben to cook. We think it's great he's so interested in it. Plus, he really enjoys eating the food he makes himself, which is fantastic, since he can be a bit of a picky eater at times.
Ben got an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas. Unfortunately, we hadn't been able to try it out since we could not find a 100-watt lightbulb anywhere. Remember 100-watt lightbulbs? You could buy a four pack of them at Wal-Mart for about 88 cents? Well, guess what? They don't carry them anymore. Crazy, right? They have all switched to energy efficient bulbs and the closest you can find is a 90-watt bulb. So, I went ahead and bought the lightbulb and figured we would just have to leave the goodies we were baking in the oven a little longer to compensate for the lack of wattage. Turns out I was right... we had to cook the cookies we made about two minutes longer than the directions listed. It really wasn't a big deal at all.
I really wish the Easy Bake Oven designer people would have left well enough alone and kept the little "oven" look for the new Easy Bake Ovens. They look like microwaves now. It's "Easy Bake Oven," right? Oh well. The good news is that it works exactly the same as it did when I was a kid. I guess lightbulb-cooking technology really hasn't changed much in the last 30 years. 
The oven comes with packages of cookie and cake mixes that only require about a teaspoon of water to mix. It's super easy, and it was a ton of fun. Of course Ben's attention span didn't last the 10 minutes it took to make the cookies, but he did help take the cookies out and he washed the little pans.  I'm proud of my little Chef.

Ben waiting for the Easy Bake Oven to warm up...

 Cookies before baking.

Waiting for the cookies to finish baking.

Cookies after baking. Yeah, I know... they're tiny.

Ben LOVED the cookies, and that's what counts.
 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh my gosh, you are the only one that has answered my question on if a 90watt light bulb would work. you are a life saver :) easy bakes never get old. i got one for christmas this year and im 15 :P i love it still :) so thank you so much, and keep ben cooking he will have a fine job in the future. Thanks.. :)
-brittany

Melanie said...

brittany, you are certainly welcome. :) just remember to leave the food in the oven a couple of extra minutes, and everything should cook fine.
thanks for visiting my blog. ~mel

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