L is taking Cooking Camp this week. Today he brought home an apple turnover he made from scratch. Yum.
He’s always been into cooking. A couple years ago he was watching Emeril Live every single night. He likes to help me cook and play like he has his own cooking show.
Last year he was browsing through a toy catalog and saw an Easy-Bake Oven. He put a star by it and wanted to add it to his wish list. He didn’t receive it, then something stirred his memory a few months ago and he started asking for it again. So I found one on Ebay.
Tonight we tried it out for the first time, and here’s the thing… I don’t get it. The cakes it makes are about 2 bites big. And the mixes are pretty expensive for 2 bites worth of food. I might be willing to overlook the expense if I felt my kids were learning or experiencing something valuable. But they’re mixing this tiny bit of powder with water and trying to scrape it into a tiny pan, then pushing it through a light-bulb powered plastic oven. I don’t see how this is fun or educational.
I’ve always cooked and baked with my kids. We count, measure, beat, whip, and follow recipes. It’s real and it’s awesome. I think kids are capable of much more, at earlier ages, than society gives them credit for, and I’m proud that I regularly give my kids the opportunity to prove that. I mean, the Easy-Bake Oven is recommended for ages 8+, but my eight year old can practically cook a cake in the real oven on his own.
If anyone wants an Easy-Bake Oven, I’ll probably be listing ours on Ebay before long.
[tags]easy-bake oven, cooking, kids[/tags]
{ 11 comments }
Me too! Two years ago I asked all the family for kitchen things for the girls, and even sent links to Gooseberry Patch for some adorable kid-sized baking dishes, utensils, and aprons. Everyone was on board, except my MIL and FIL, who decided that kitchen meant Easy Bake Ovens. Two. One for each girl. How odd was that? We ended up taking one back to TRU and keeping one, but I bet we’ve only had the thing out twice in two years. My girls would rather help me cook than spend an hour on two bites of food.
Couldn’t agree more! Those are for the parents who want to keep their children out from under foot while they throw dinner together, I think.
I had one, and we used it like three times.
Like you, I’d rather let my 6 year old son help in the kitchen and when he is at his grandparents he helps prepare EVERYTHING mostly because she has more patience than me.
I have not bought the easy bake oven because we already have two of the Dr. Dreadful freaky food labs and even they aren’t that great! We also have the bug kit that could probably double as an easy bake oven.
My son would LOVE a cooking camp but there is nothing like that around here.
If you do change your mind, it’s very simple to use commercial cake mix in an Easy Bake oven. :)
I have to say that I am sooooo with you on this one. Maybe we could sell two for the price of one. I’ll gladly donate our’s to you :-)
My kids are so use to cooking in the kitchen with me that when I finally gave in a bought it because they HAD to have it, they were very disappointed. It’s been in storage for quite a few years and nobody has asked about it again.
When ds wanted an Easy Bake this past x-mas I knew we would have to find an alternative to the $5 mixes. I got him the book “Baking with Mommy Cookbook: Recipes for Kid-Size Ovens” Then you actually measure, mix & bake. He begs to use it all the time but I can’t stand spending and hour to bake bites.
What works is to take a third of commercial cake mix and 1/3 of the oil, water, and egg. Then the kids can make several “cakes” themselves from 1/3 of the mix and can do it independently for very little cost.
Good luck.
I think Dana really hit it right. This is a product from a by-gone era where parent’s could push off the kid into a corner and give them something to do to “help” and keep them out from under foot.
Once you start introducing a kid to real cooking and baking, the EZ Bake is a complete waste of time and money (the helpful hints give aside of course).
Stop watching Emeril and start watching Good Eats. Best show on television and now it’s on every night at 8 pm. Instead of making fancy dishes that he probably never has heard of, Alton goes back to the basics and makes normal dishes great!
We have been making soft pretzel’s lately (search on foodtv.com for the recipe). I’m spoiled by his cheesecake recipe, his chocolate chip cookies are amazing and I wouldn’t imagine making microwave popcorn again.
Truly, my son still loves MY old Easy-Bake, which my mom bought used for my older sister at a garage sale in 1973 (it still works, 35 years later). We don’t use the kits. We just use part of a larger recipe. I have always baked with him, since he was two, and he is just as adept in the real oven. He just likes to have something his size! I would never send him off to the corner to do his own thing, particularly since our original model doesn’t include finger guards/hand guards. Those pans get hot!!
We stop using the kits, just too much $$ that can be used elsewhere.
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