Thursday, July 2, 2009

Easy Bake Oven Cake Mix

So, for Buttercup's birthday, she received an Easy Bake oven. Unbeknown to me, the mixes for those itty bitty cakes cost $4-$5! Can you believe it? I couldn't either. Needless to say, there hasn't been a lot of Easy Bakin' going on in our house. You can imagine how tickled I was to stumble on this recipe from Tawra at Living on a Dime. Yes, you can just make your own itty bitty cakes from scratch.
Buttercup and her friend had a ball doing this last week while Superman and I were rearranging the house. While the kitchen was a disaster during their adventure, they did an awesome job cleaning up after the fact and I will have problem letting them have at it again. The funny thing? I'll let Buttercup use the real oven whenever she likes...she really wanted to cook with a light bulb.

So, for those of you with younger ones who have or might someday have an Easy Bake Oven in your life, I share with you the frugal approach to baking with your Easy Bake Oven.

Easy Bake Oven Chocolate Cake Mix
From Living on a Dime
Ingredients (mix for 11 cakes):
1 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. cocoa
1 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup vegetable shorteningDirections for mix:
In a medium bowl, combine sugar, cocoa, flour, baking soda and salt. Stir until blended. Cut in shortening until mixture resembles corn meal. Store in an airtight container. Use within 12 weeks. Makes 11 cakes.
Directions per cake:

1/3 cup Easy Bake cake mix
5-6 tsp. water. Mix together until smooth. Pour mixture into greased and floured 4 inch round baking pan. Follow directions for child's oven. Cool in pan for 5 minutes. Invert onto a small plate and remove pan. When cool, frost with Easy Bake Frosting. Makes 1 cake.Don't forget the Frosting:

Easy Bake Chocolate or White Frosting
From Living on a Dime
Ingredients for enough to frost 11 cakes:
2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp. dry milk
1/2 cup cocoa (For white frosting, omit cocoa.)
6 Tbsp. solid vegetable shorteningDirections for Batch:
In a bowl, combine powdered sugar, dry milk and cocoa. Cut in shortening. Store in an airtight container. Use in 12 weeks.Directions per cake:

1/3 cup Chocolate Frosting mix
2 - 2 1/2 tsp. waterIn a small bowl, combine frosting mix and water. Stir with a fork until smooth. Makes about 1/4 cup.

So, how cool is that? The girls did it themselves, I didn't cringe at the cost and they learned you can do it from stuff you have at home and you don't have to go spend $5 to have fun.

P.S. Did I mention the girls got impatient with the Easy Bake oven and used the rest of the batter to make heart-shaped cakes?

2 comments:

Debbie said...

Oh my WORD! I LOVED my Easy Bake oven - I couldn't WAIT for my mom to bake because she would share just enough batter with me so I could make a cake in my oven! It was the BEST game ever!!!

Unknown said...

I was always disappointed with my easy bake oven, but I think that was because I could use our real oven at a very young age, so I knew how cakes were supposed to come out. But I am so glad that Buttercup and friends are enjoying it, and that you can make new cakes anytime you want.