I am 34 years old. I have an Easy-Bake Oven, and I use it!
This particular oven was manufactured in the early 80s... but I just got it a couple of years ago! I found it on ebay, brand-new, never-been-opened, mint-in-package, and all that other ebayspeak. I chose this particular vintage because it was from around the time I would have had an Easy-Bake Oven, had it occurred to me at that time to want one. I just never really thought about it, I guess. My mom baked everything in the regular oven. Why wouldn't I?
What's really fun about my Easy-Bake Oven is that I get to use the miniature kitchen gadgets I have collected over the years. They are perfect for the jobs at hand. Tonight, I mixed chocolate cookie dough in a custard cup with a mini rubber spatula...
... and marshmallow filling in another custard cup with a mini whisk...
... to make mini whoopie pies:
How adorable are those?!? Each one is about an inch in diameter.
Are whoopie pies a New England thing, or are they common all over the country? It seems as though I heard something a long time ago about them being popular pretty much just in New England. They are my absolute favorite junk food on the planet. But I digress.
I have found that my Easy-Bake Oven is the perfect remedy for those late night, need-sugar-now fits. The little cakes and cookies are quick, easy, and a great exercise in portion control! Plus, they're just so damn cute. I'm sure they're also full of lots of scary chemicals and artificial thises and thats that I generally don't eat... but seriously, the oven only comes out once every couple of months or so. I think I'll survive.
Not long after I got my Easy-Bake, I searched the 'net for recipes to make my own little cake mixes. It was a lot of fun to mix up the flour, sugar, cocoa, and shortening, and I portioned the mix into snack-size Ziploc baggies. Again, too cute for words. Unfortunately, the cakes these mixes made were awful! Does anyone out there have any good homemade mix recipes? I know there's an Easy-Bake cookbook... in fact, it's on my Amazon wish list. =) And the official Easy-Bake website has some fun stuff, too... but I'd love to hear what you (and/or your kids!) like to make in your Easy-Bake Ovens!
... epiphany? Revelation? Awakening? However you choose to file it, here's what I discovered today: The Pantry. I've lived in Maine for thirtysomething years. I've been in plenty of good old New England houses. But until today, I had never seen a real, live Pantry. I'd certainly heard tell of such wonders, but the closest thing I'd ever seen was a large cupboard within the kitchen, intended for dry goods, canned goods, crackers, cookies, spices, boxes of Kraft Cheese and Macaroni, etc. In greater Boston, however, many of the apartments have Pantries. From what I've seen, it's more uncommon for a Boston kitchen to not have a Pantry! And just in case you were wondering, I know that "Pantry" shouldn't really start with a capital "P...." but The Pantry is such a beautiful thing to me, I think it should. And doesn't the word "pantry" start to seem very strange after it's been used a few times?
Guess what? It snowed here today. Again. It feels like it hasn't stopped snowing for two months. So in between shoveling snow and apartment hunting, I felt the need, of course, to bake something. Here's another recipe from my NordicwareBundt Cookbook...
Spicy Mandarin Muffins
1 (11 oz.) can mandarin oranges (cut each slice into 3 - 4 pieces)
1-1/2 cups sifted flour
1/2 cup sugar
1-3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp allspice
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup milk
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup butter, melted
Drain mandarin oranges thoroughly. In large bowl combine dry ingredients. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add milk and egg; stir just until dry ingredients are moistened. Gently stir in oranges. Divide batter evenly into a greased Bundt Mini-Muffin or Bundt Muffin Pan. Bake at 350 for 15 - 20 minutes. Turn out on wire rack. Combine 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp cinnamon. While hot, dip tops of muffins in melted butter, then roll in sugar mixture.
For excellent eating and keeping qualities, keep dough as soft as possible, just so you can handle it.
Unfortunately, this recipe didn't show off the pretty shapes my Bundlette pan makes nearly as well as my Mini Spice Cakes did. My apologies for the crappy picture, but I didn't have much to work with. Not to mention the fact that the muffin-cakes were a huge disappointment! They seriously lack flavor. The spices were un-detectable, the cakes weren't as sweet as I like my muffin-type-foods to be, and the oranges could barely be tasted! The texture was nice... light, moist, and fluffy... but it didn't make up for the other shortcomings. This isn't a recipe I plan on making again. That does't happen to me very often! I guess I'm just having a bad Karma day or something.
Damn that Brattle Book Shop. I just can't be anywhere near the city of Boston without going in there and spending money. The last time I was there, about three weeks ago, the cashier noticed I was buying two cookbooks, and she told me they were expecting more soon. She was right. Their cookbook inventory has increased by at least half since then!
I can usually get out of there with a couple books for $10 to $15, and this time was no exception. I got a copy of "The Cornell Bread Book" by Clive M. McCay and Jeanette B. McCay. Mr. McCay was a professor at Cornell University in the late 1930s, and invented "The Cornell Bread." If you don't know what I'm talking about, look it up. It's pretty interesting. The book has 54 recipes, all based on McCay's "formula" for healthier baking. And his middle name is "Maine!"
I also bought my first James Beard book:
And yes, of course it's about bread! I've only skimmed through it, and it has some great recipes, techniques, and "observations," but I find, as I expected, that Beard's writing is a bit pretentious. His Cheese Bread has "an intriguing cheese bouquet and flavor," he bakes his Pizza Loaf "in a souffle mold," and he feels that "sourdough bread is much overrated." I really have to disagree with his assessment of sourdough! But it's a neat book, with lovely sketched illustrations and quite a few recipes that I will definitely try. I'll just have to overlook his precious little recipe introductions.
