Easy Bake: Tasty Cake and Cookie Recipes from Scratch
When my mom was in town a few weeks ago we stopped in at one of my favorite thrift stores. As we browsed the kid-clothes my daughter found her heart’s desire: the Easy Bake Oven. I wasn’t so sure; she’s been cooking with me since she was big enough to hold a whisk and I didn’t want to, well, ruin her early cooking experiences with a dinky little plastic oven. I tried explaining that it’s for eight year olds, that it made not-so-delicious desserts…but nothing could keep my mother from being moved by her granddaughter’s wish (particularly since she’s usually more than happy to put things back with a simple ‘no’) and into the cart it went. Honestly, it’s not that I didn’t want her to have the oven–I have nothing but fond memories of my own, I just wasn’t sure whether she was old enough for it and really wasn’t sure what my husband would think about our foray into lightbulb cookery.
I could not have been more wrong.
It was a completely worthwhile $2 investment for a number of reasons:
First: My 5 1/2 year old really can use it all by herself, down to doing her own dishes (hey, that lesson can’t start too early!).
Second: It makes tiny treats that are just enough to satisfy my our cravings. An itty bitty piece of cake has a lot fewer calories and less sugar than that cupcake I’ve been craving.
Third:I quickly figured out that I wasn’t going to spend a couple of bucks for a mix that makes one cardboard-y little puck of a cake or a few tasteless cookies. Instead, we’ve been using some store-bought cake mixes I had on hand and finding great recipes to mix up our own treats.
Here are a few especially good recipes to try:
Brownies
2 T. sugar
1 t. oil
1/8 t. vanilla extract
4 t. chocolate syrup (like Hershey’s)
2 1/2 T. flour
1/8 t. baking powder
Stir everything together.
Pour batter into a pan coated with nonstick cooking spray.
Bake 15 minutes.
Blondies
2 1/2 T. brown sugar
1 t. oil
1/8 t. vanilla extract
3 T. flour
1/8 t. baking powder
optional: a few white chips, chopped nuts, or 1 T. shredded coconut
Stir everything together.
Pour batter into a pan coated with nonstick cooking spray.
Bake 15 minutes.
Homemade Easy Bake Cake Mix, lemon or chocolate
1 c. sugar
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 t. lemon-flavored unsweetened Kool-Aid (lemon cake) or cocoa (chocolate cake)
1/3 c. vegetable shortening (I used trans-fat-free Crisco)
In a medium bowl, combine sugar, flour, baking soda, salt and drink powder or cocoa.
Cut in shortening until evenly distributed and mixture resembles corn meal.
Distribute about 3 T. mix into each of 10-12 ziploc bags.
To use: Combine mix and 1 T. milk. Mix together, bake 15 minutes.
Easy Bake Peanut Butter Cookies
1/4 c. flour
1 1/2 T. peanut butter
1 T. butter
2 t. brown sugar
1/8 t. baking powder
few drops vanilla
Stir everything together.
Roll into 1/2″ balls (or scoop with a 1/2 t. measure) and flatten a bit with a fork (4 per batch).
Bake 10 minutes.
Easy Bake Oatmeal Cookie Mix
1 1/2 c. quick-cooking oats
3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 t. baking powder
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. vegetable shortening
Combine oats, flour, baking powder and brown sugar.
Stir to blend.
Cut in shortening with a pastry blender until mixture resembles corn meal.
Spoon about 1/2 c. mix into each of 8 ziploc bags.
To use: Combine 1/2 c. mix with 2 T. milk. Stir until smooth, bake 15 minutes.
The Easiest Chocolate Frosting
1 T. chocolate chips
1 t. cream or half-and-half
Melt chocolate chips in dish on top of easy bake oven.
Stir in cream or half and half until smooth, then frost immediately. (you can also use peanut butter chips for variety)
To use boxed cake mix (think Duncan Hines):
Method 1:Combine 2 T. mix and 1 T. milk. Stir until smooth, then bake 15 minutes.
Method 2:Combine 2 t. milk and 2 t. mayonnaise (it’s just eggs and oil!), stir into 2 T. mix. Bake 15 minutes
We’ve used a few different kinds of mix–devil’s food was good, german chocolate was great with a few white or semi-sweet chocolate chips thrown in, and ‘funfetti’ was cute, but I wouldn’t call it delicious. We just keep the rest of the box of mix in a tupperware and mete it out 2T at a time. Enjoy!
I love easy bake ovens, too–just be careful because my daughter got her hand stuck in one!
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don
Thanks for sharing these recipes. I got my daughter an Easy Bake Oven for Christmas this year. She will be so thrilled. A friend told me to check the web for home made recipes; that she had heard they were just as good as the store bought ones. Thanks again. You’ve saved me lots of money and made my daughter incredibly happy!!!!!!!
these recipes are great!!!!!!!!!
these taste sooooooooo much better than the store bought ones!!!!
I just got an Easy-Bake oven for Christmas, and these recipes are great! I’m fourteen and I still enjoy the Ovens. I have friends over a lot, and I thought it would be fun to make treats for them, so it was so helpful to see these recipes posted! Don’t want to go traipsing back and forth from Target to get mixes
My 5 year old daughter has a severe, life-threatening nut allergy, yet she wanted an Easy-Bake Oven. Before “Santa” brought her one this year, I looked on the Internet to see if there were any “from scratch” recipes because every last one of the cake or cookie mixes that come with the Easy Bake Oven are manufactured in a place that has nuts. THANK YOU for this site! Thanks to your recipes, my daughter can enjoy her new Easy Bake oven like every other little girl out there!!
I just bought one of these for my middle daughter’s birthday. I loved mine when I was a kid so much! Thank you for taking the time to post all of these recipes. I see many fun afternoons “baking” with my girls with a kid sized oven
Tasty Peanut Butter Cookies
TASTY PEANUTBUTTER COOKIE
Whoops I left it twice sorry
I can’t wait to try these.
Thank you for the recipes. My daughter has a peanut allergy, so we needed an alternative to the EB recipe mixes!
thanks for the recipes…have a 5 year old budding chef & he wants to bake w/ his new easy bake
Thanks so much! These recipes are very convenient. I love the fact I don’t have to spend
8$ for a tiny easy bake mix!
thanks so so much my little 9 year old sister got this for christmas and we used it and used all the recipes that came with it and my mom didnt wanna spend any more money on a little puck of cake so thanks so much for these recipes
Thanks for these recipes. My daughter just got her Easy Bake oven, and we are both enjoying it! (Neither me or my friends had one growing up).
Keep up the good work!
Bette
Thanks so much… i got one of these when I was like 10 or 11, but I never did really like store bought mixes. So I never really played with it, but these recipes are delicious!!! Thanks!!
Do i just make these in the pans it comes with?
OMG, These recipes are delicious. I can’t get enough of theses treats. I’m 50 years old and love these things! Go Grandma, Go!
I am 38 years old and my mother gave me my first Easy Bake Oven this last Christmas. My father had always been concerned I would burn myself (he did not know they use a light bulb for the heat source), so my mom could never get me one. I am so excited about these recipes and spending many hours with my nieces this summer making treats! Thanks!
[...] Easy Bake Tasty Cake and Cookie Recipes from Scratch kiddio Posted by root 16 hours ago (http://www.kiddio.org) Submitted by amanda on july 15 2008 9 04 pmone comment cake mixes i had on hand and finding great recipes to mix up our own treats powered by wordpress log in entries rss comments rss arthemia premium theme by Discuss | Bury | News | easy bake tasty cake and cookie recipes from scratch kiddio [...]
[...] recipes out there that use regular ingredients. Here’s a site I found that has quite a few recipes Easy Bake: Tasty Cake and Cookie Recipes from Scratch | kiddio | kids. craft. life. She got a cookie mix with it, it made three tiny cookies. They didn’t taste too bad. I can’t wait [...]