Every Good Cook Has to Start Somewhere

I love to cook, and I have Kenner Products to thank for it. When I was in the 3rd grade, Santa Claus brought me an Easy Bake Oven. You have to understand, I came from a Filipino household whose idea of dessert consisted of sticky rice, cassava, or coco jam, so having access to true Americanized sweets was a big deal indeed.

My Easy Bake was shiny red plastic with faux temperature knobs and cabinets. It also came with assorted metal pans–even a long-handled stick whose sole purpose is to scoot the pans along the heated assembly line. All a girl had to do was mix water with the pre-measured cake mixes, also included, and move the pan into the oven. There was even a little plastic window available to watch the cakes rise. It took forever to bake a cake that could be swallowed up in two bites (believe me, my brother did just that), but I swear that tiny cake made the house smell so GOOD!

So it was with a twinge of regret to learn today that the Easy Bake Oven is in need of a little updating. It seems the age of green has caught up with this beloved toy; as of next year, 100-watt incandescent bulbs–the source of Easy Bake’s power–will no longer be available. Hasbro Inc., which now markets the oven, promises an updated, albeit bulb-less, model by this fall.

Whether the new design will work as well isn’t the question, but rather will it matter? Little girls, in my opinion, are no longer fascinated by the Easy Bake Oven, as my friends and I were years ago. Today’s budding cooks can practice their cooking skills playing games such as Cooking Mama, Cookie Maker, or Pizza Maker on their Nintendo DS systems, iTouch, or iPad, all without the bother of the clean-up. For the hungry, pre-stamped cookie dough can be baked, or shelf stable brownies microwaved. If this is the new intro into the culinary arts, so be it.

As for me, I’ll stick with the old-fashioned way. I rescued my daughter’s Easy Bake (circa 2004) from the Goodwill donation box and kept it for safe keeping. Oh, and I better stockpile some light bulbs while I’m thinking of it…

2 comments February 24, 2011