On November 4th, 1963, the First Easy Bake Oven was introduced before Christmas. I was eight years old and I had this toy on the top of my Christmas list.
I didn’t receive one from Santa. But my best friend, Laurel, did get the special toy.
The original oven was pink and used two 100 watt light bulbs to cook small cakes and cookies.
A few mixes were included with the oven. More mixes could be purchased at the toy store.
The dry mix was made with water. The pans included with the oven were pushed through a slot on the side with a handle. When the timer sounded, the finished cake was pushed out the other slot.
I begged my friend to play with the oven. I even bought mixes to replace the ones we used.
The Kenner toy company produced the oven in a variety of colors and sizes. In In the early 1990’s, Hasbro Toys bought the Kenner Toy company. They started to make a oven in gender neutral colors and with a heating element instead of light bulbs.
We purchased a Hasbro Easy cook oven in 1997 for our daughter. Ruth and her friend Dannie, loved to make desserts and snacks using this toy.
In addition to the oven, there was a heating element on the burner top that would melt chocolate chips.
The girls melted chocolate, poured it into flower molds. Then sprinkled with decorative colored sugars.
The Hasvro ovens were named snacks centers. They could cook main dishes and desserts. The pans were bigger than the pans from Kenner.
Eventually, little girls and boys want to use the real oven. This toy was a nice transition to real baking.
Below is a photo of an new easy bake oven.
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Christmas 1997
We waited until she was in bed.
Starting to bring up the hidden gifts, we hear a wail.
“Joey!” “Where is my Joey bear?”
Stopping Santa, we start to hunt.
Finally, Joey is located in Ruth’s play house in the basement.
She was so happy to have her bear buddy,
She didn’t notice the presents under the tree.
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