Every Christmas as I was growing up I had a favorite toy or doll on my wish list. By the time I was about 8 years old, I had already started to fall in love with baking. So, one Christmas I asked for an Easy Bake Oven.
We celebrated Christmas Eve with a holiday dinner at my Grandma and Grandpa Kalsem’s house.
Here is a picture of me with my siblings and first cousins at Grandma and Grandpa’s. You can see both my sister and I were proudly sporting our Dorothy Hamill haircuts. I was wearing my aqua blue jumpsuit, which I remember being one of my favorites. I still love that color.
After my Grandma’s wonderful holiday supper, the kids would help distribute presents to family members gathered around the room.
This particular year, I was thrilled to open my present and find a burnt orange and harvest gold Easy-Bake Oven inside. The color certainly gives away the era.
I could hardly wait to get that little oven home and start baking. It had a light bulb inside that gave off enough heat to bake miniature cakes. The oven came with mini baking pans and a plastic wand to push the pans into the side of the oven and pull them out from the other side once they were done.
I also remember the box with the oven included several cake mixes. Once those were used up, I started experimenting and making my own recipes for cookies and cakes (that tasted pretty bland, as I recall). I also helped Mom as she made full-sized cakes in her oven and poured a little of her batter into my mini pans.Continue reading