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Over the Thanksgiving holiday we brought a few toy treats with us to our family to pass the time.  I’ve been planning to test out the Easy Bake Microwave and Style Deluxe Cake and Cookie  Kit for several weeks and was looking for the right person to share in my fun. I always wanted, but never owned, an Easy Bake Oven, so secretly I have been waiting to bust this box open for weeks. Let’s just say I didn’t have to twist the arm of my 14 year old niece to help me either, we were both silly and giddy with excitement. I know this Easy-Bake kit is recommended for ages 8 and up, but are’t we all just kids at heart?

After we opened the package and read the directions, literally within seconds the batter was mixed and within a minute our three little chocolate cakes were cooked using the microwave! The measuring devices were easy to understand and use, because adding water was all was required, and symbols are used to measure rather than numbers.  A great safety mechanism when cooking the cakes is that the microwave cover also turns colors to help identify if the cakes are too hot to open. Included in the kit are 12 different tools (measuring spoon, rolling pin, fondant mold, detail stampers, letter stampers, pattern plates, cookie cutters) and a variety of different mixes (3 coookie and 2 cake mixes).

We then decided to cover our cakes with pink fondant.  This is where we both thought using the Easy Bake Set, really wasn’t so easy, and if you are using this kit with younger children, it may be handy to be there to supervise for any questions, guidanceand help. Pink is an understatement, this pink was the brightest, boldest pink we had ever seen and joked that if we turned the lights off, it would probably glow in the dark.  After we worked for what seemed like 10 minutes making the fondant, we were ready to roll it and imprint it with the different tools included in the kit. We rolled and we cut and we pressed and we tried, though they looked like cakes, despite our creativity, they definitely did NOT look like the beautiful creations on the box that we tried to emulate.  Over an hour or so later, our three, bite sized creations were complete.

Here are some of my thoughts:

– You may want to experiment with the cookies, frosting and sprinkles first before jumping right into the fondant to practice using the tools more successfully

– All the tools needed were in the box, but we did find it helpful to use a very small spatula to mix the fondant and a toothpick might be helpful to remove the fondant from some of the molds if it gets stuck in some of the crevices

– I did think this would be a great way to incorporate into a home birthday party where all of the kids can work cooperatively and use their creativity to create a variety of unique desserts using different stations for mixing, cooking and decorating

So to answer the question, are Easy-Bake kits as easy as they look? Yes, making the cakes and cookies are definitely fool proof, decorating them can be a bit more of a challenge. Though we were both not so proud of our final products, we shared a lot of laughs, giggles and family time so though we were more disappointed in ourselves for not being able to create the cutest cakes in the world, if you value the process and not the final product, anyone can be an easy bake overnight success!

Hasbro provided the Easy Bake kit free to facilitate a review.  The opinions expressed in this entry are purely the bloggers own.

Photo credits to Derek Wilmot