Katie and her oven
One of the gifts Katie received for Christmas was an Easy-Bake Oven. These things have stood the test of time since I know that I wanted one when I was young (and yes, I’m comfortable in my manhood to say that).
The oven itself is constructed of the high-grade plastic that we’re accustomed to and once you add the 100-watt bulb you’re in business. You get a couple of small pans, a yellow broomstick-looking device to push the little pans into the furnace (typically used as a club on siblings) and some annoying measuring scoops that are almost guaranteed to be inaccurate.
Of course in this day and age we all know that Wall Street requires that businesses show a constant revenue stream otherwise they’re considered a bad investment. The way the sellers of the Easy-Bake Oven, Hasbro, Inc., provide that revenue stream is to sell the additional cake and brownie mixes at $5-10. Once again proving the Internet can solve (and create) any problem I found several recipes online that you can use to bake things from scratch.
So we started with a brownie recipe that looked promising. I promptly ignored the stupid scoops that came with the oven and used real utensils. Katie did all the work of measuring and leveling of ingredients, mixing them together, greasing the pan and getting ready to bake. There were a few things I tried to show her but I received the typical “I can do it!” and left her to figure it out on her own. Anyone who knows me knows that I can’t let as recipe go as-is so we added some chocolate chips to the first brownie which of course she agreed to.
Once in the pan it takes 12 minutes to cook once you’ve sufficiently pre-lit the oven. And those 12 minutes give you to best time to teach your little chef the secondary skill critical to being able to feed yourself. Cleaning up after yourself. Katie really enjoyed the idea of doing the dishes and of course wouldn’t let me help.
Actually Enjoying It
Cleaning the Spoons
During this time William was playing with Legos nearby but soon gravitated over when he heard that the brownies were almost done. The kids became more and more excited as the timer counted down to zero and then we took the brownies out of the oven. Note in the foreground yellow club mentioned earlier in the post.
Proud Chefs
Here’s a photo of the first brownie and cross section of how it turned out. It was surprisingly good. Of course it was closer to a cake than brownie, I could tell it was going to turn out like that from reading the recipe but it didn’t taste nasty. The kids of course enjoyed them and for about 3 cents it really can’t be beat.
The First Brownie
The Brownie Internals
About to Chow Down
With the brownies out of the way it was time to move onto bigger and better things, namely fudge. The recipe was titled “Peanut Butter Fudge” but it used almost as much cocoa as it did peanut butter. If it was possible to make halfway decent candy with a light bulb then they could name the recipe “Essence of Green Beans” for all I care. Since William had seen (and eaten) what was possible with Katie’s new toy he really participated this time around. The kids took turns measuring out the ingredients and here’s a photo of the mess before we mixed it all together.
Ewww
Having made really fudge a time or two I actually thought this had a decent shot of turning out. It used powdered sugar and while we weren’t actually going to be cooking this to the correct candy stage I figured the light bulb might get the job done.
While the Fudge Cooks...
The fudge only had a 5 minute cooking time but needed time to “setup.” This gave the kids the time necessary to do one of the most important things related to cooking and being a kid, cleaning the bowl and spoons. With the fudge finally done we had to let it cool and it was scheduled to be the dessert for this evening provided everyone behaved. As typical with any sweets left out during the holidays people started coming by and wanted a sample. I told them they had to wait as well.
Strawberry Shortcake and St. Nick Eying the Fudge
I’ll report back on how the fudge turned out. Since it’s made up of over 75% sugar I really don’t see the kids giving it a thumbs down. I partially hope that it’s not that good of fudge otherwise I’ll probably be firing up the oven once the kids go to bed.