Recently, my mom was cleaning out my sister and I's game cabinet, and she pulled out an Easy Bake Oven. The oven immediately conjured up childhood memories of putting on aprons and oven mitts that were too big for our hands, and attempting to make cookies out of the mixes. We opened up the box and found a mix for brownies, so we decided to make it.
While emptying the contents of the brownie mix packet into a bowl and adding the wet ingredients was very easy, some of the aspects to the Easy Bake Oven were quite frustrating. We then poured the batter into a pan that was about as small as my palm and stuck it into the oven. A simple click of the switch, and the brownie began to cook. Easy Bake Ovens cook using a 100-watt lightbulb. While this feature allows the oven to be wire-free, it makes for very slow baking. It took about 15 minutes for the brownie to cook, about half the time of a 13x9 inch pan of brownies from a standard mix! Eventually the brownie appeared to be cooked, so we tried to pull it out using the long, red plastic device that came with the oven. This was actually quite frustrating, since we ended up pushing the brownie deeper into the oven, instead of lifting underneath it and pulling it out! When my sister and I finally fished the brownie out of the oven and tasted it, we were not satisfied. The brownie tasted horrible!
On the plus side, we decided to try baking a cookie from some refrigerated cookie dough that we had in our freezer, and the cookie came out quite well. While Easy Bake Ovens are meant for young kids and are effective in providing a realistic experience of baking, they end results are often distasteful and the tedious effort is not worth the end result. I would simply suggest having a child make a treat using a standard mix, and then preparing it in a regular oven. The end result is (almost) always delicious and satisfying!
4 comments:
I guess that shows you how easily amused and patient we are as kids. When we are little, the basic concept of being all grown up can entertain us no matter what it takes. Also, time pretty much doesn't exist for kids, so an activity can take as long as they would like, depending on how amused they are. Kids have no where to rush to, so they can just relax and take their time doing whatever they like.
I would have done the same thing if I found an easy bake oven in my closet. I used to love those! I did get really frustrated having to wait though. I'm not sure why I liked it so much because I never ate the brownie because it was disgusting and I didn't sit and watch it cook. I guess it was just the idea that I was able to do the same things my mom was.
You touch on some very interesting thoughts. I am a firm believer in having children experience wait time. We live in such an "instantaneous" world that we think immediate gratification is a right not a luxury. But, I think the Easy Bake Oven falsely played on the dreams of children by advertising that the baked goods would be perfect. I think a child should learn the art of cooking in the kitchen. My husband has taught my girls how to cook ever since they were toddlers. It's a calming, educational, creative experience for them. It is also very practical! (I feel the same way about gardening. I hate those little kits! Bring the kids outside and have them take care of their own space.) Okay. That's my rant for the day!
Personally, if I was a fretting parent, I might be worried that if I allowed my child to cook with actual kitchen supplies, they might burn themselves or something of the sort. I do see the value in doing so however. But even with the easy bake oven, though I never had one and am not sure of exactly how it works besides how you described it, I'm assuming a lot of the components are made of plastic, and being a bit of a health freak, I have to wonder if any of those chemicals are leaking into the food while it is being cooked.
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