Photos: Celebrating Easy-Bake Oven’s 50th Anniversary (With Gail Simmons!)
Did we really just want to eat miniature sweets harvested from powdered packets and cooked by the radiant heat of a 100-watt light bulb? Naturally. But having editors this agreeable (as well as a staff that largely came of age in the ‘80’s) means a certain amount of freedom to live out our childhood fantasies. Because even though we were the happy beneficiaries of most of our generations’ prerequisite toys — Cabbage Patch Dolls, She-Ra action figures, Glow Worms, Koosh Balls, Teddy Ruxpin — for some reason, all of our entreaties for a magnificently hazardous Easy-Bake were met by offers to use the real oven. Feh.
To be sure, most of the mommy blogger-type ladies (save for one awkward male photographer) at Hasbro’s Easy-Bake soiree had more legit claims to their invitation than we did. But it was soon evident that everyone’s mind was less on what kind of post they would write later, than on who would get to be the first to use the giant plastic spatula to fetch the tin tray of cake goo from the cooling chamber of the Easy-Bake Ultimate.
Like a tea party for overgrown girls, the afternoon began with blush colored “mocktails” and a spread of teensy weensy hors d’oeuvres (only one, a mottled pink, pineapple topped cookie, had been culled from an actual Easy-Bake). There was also a retrospective of Easy-Bake Ovens throughout the ages, from the original flimsy turquoise model of the 60’s complete with faux induction burners, to the mod, microwave-esque version of today, in gender-neutral silver and black (in response to a young girl’s Change.org petition against the unapologetically purple incarnation most of us remember).
The keynote event, however, was a cooking class hosted by Simmons, who tottered around — pregnant and in heels — touting the improvements of the next-Gen Easy-Bake. Dedicated heating elements replace those incandescent light bulbs, and a new line of sweet and savory mixes (including pizza, pretzels and whoopie pies) are a step up from the original, 1/8-inch high yellow cakes. They’ve also returned to the original side-loading design, since the newer, front-loading versions resulted in 16 reports of third-degree burns and finger amputations. Hooray!
Most importantly, Simmons shared recipes for the modern Easy-Bake aficionado, which, yeah, you can totally make with kids. Or (and don’t tell our mom), you can just discreetly go to local Toys R Us and finally buy a damn Easy-Bake for your very own.